


Kindred 6: The Street Rat

by torturingtaylor (itzaimster)



Series: Kindred Series [6]
Category: Hanson
Genre: Brothers, Clones, Conspiracy, Gen, Genetics, Implied Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-03 00:53:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8690239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itzaimster/pseuds/torturingtaylor
Summary: Mark begins to realise he's in more trouble than first thought. Alex has trouble adjusting to life on the run and finds temporary refuge in Tulsa, where tragedy also drives Jesse. Keandre arrives in the States.





	1. Chapter 1

“I swear if there’s a safe word, I don’t know it! I’m _not_ Colin!”  
“Just relax. We still have a few days to go.”  
Mark grit his teeth and groaned. He’d already been stuck in this apartment with her for going on three days. She’d been meticulous. He had no access to his phone, to the door, or even a window. Anything he tried to tell her was falling on deaf ears. She’d come with a mission and she was getting the job done.  
But he still didn’t know what her mission even _was_. At first sight he’d just thought she was an expensive hooker, but as time wore on things had gotten more and more… crazy. She’d gone from the expensive evening gown he’d first seen her in to a leather ensemble that frankly looked complicated and hard to wear. Not to mention _tight_.  
He couldn’t work out what their relationship was. Was she an ex-girlfriend? Was she some kind of dominatrix Colin had booked specifically? What about his wife?  
He didn’t know and he was trying not to care. But she demanded his attention every moment he was awake.  
He was tired. He wanted out.  
“Not falling asleep on me again, are you?” he heard her voice behind him before her left hand slid around his hip.  
“I wish I could,” he muttered under his breath.  
He yelped when he felt a jolt in his back, knowing she’d aimed for his kidney and missed. He tried pulling down on his wrists again but the leather restraints were holding them tight to a bar that ran across the center of the closet.  
“I swear to God I know this is supposed to be fun for you guys but this is not my thing,” he shook his head.  
“You can stop talking in the third person, it’s weird,” the blond scorned, “don’t tempt me to draw blood. That comes later.”  
“No it does not!” Mark’s voice rose before she hit him with the small Taser again.  
He had to catch his breath this time and he groaned as he leant his head into his arm.  
“Oh come on,” he murmured to himself.  
He was half hoping Carey would show up and save him. But even if he hadn’t made it clear that moving to Chicago had been for personal space, he knew his twin was angry with him. He never did get to end that phone call.  
“Don’t you worry baby…” she stepped around to where he could see her, “I won’t let you get bored. I won’t let you get cold. We can even cuddle if you want to.”  
His eyes followed her hand as it started to roam his bare chest.  
“But it’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” she pouted, “and I’m sure you’ve done so many naughty things in that time.”  
“I haven’t,” he started to shake his head, stopping when she tutted and put a finger to his lips.  
She paused to make sure he wouldn’t say anything else before using her finger to gently trace the scar on his cheek. He closed his eyes as he held back a yawn.  
The next thing he knew she’d roughly grabbed his crotch.  
“Let’s get back to work,” she playfully bit her lip.

“It’s so weird being back,” Zac looked around as he collapsed onto the couch.  
“Tell me about it,” Isaac nodded in agreement, “for a while there I didn’t think it was going to happen.”  
“Yeah me too,” Zac’s eyes fell.  
“Does anyone remember where we were up to?” Taylor appeared through the door, dumping his satchel beside Zac.  
“I believe we were somewhere between the final drum tracks for _Wintry Mix_ and deciding which of the clones to eventually replace you with,” Zac replied.  
Taylor stared him down as Isaac smirked from his chair.  
“What?” Zac shrugged.  
They were distracted by Taylor’s phone ringing. Unable to think of a retort before he had to answer it, Taylor simply rolled his eyes.  
“Yeah?”  
“Taylor? It’s Carey.”  
“Carey,” he frowned, looking across at Isaac, “what’s up?”  
“It’s Alex,” he got to the point, “they traced his hack when Jesse was getting you out of Dallas.”  
“What happened?”  
“Nothing yet,” Carey assured, “but he and his Mom need a place to stay. They’ve been on the road ever since and I’m pretty sure they’ll technically be in a stolen car soon.”  
“So…?”  
“Colin’s safe houses. If I send Alex to you can you direct him to one?”  
“You want to send him here?” Taylor’s brow rose.  
“You have to admit,” Carey didn’t sound confident, “it’d be a good place to hide out. People will just think he’s you.”  
Taylor opened his mouth to complain that they didn’t even look alike but decided against that argument.  
“What am I supposed to tell people?” he went with instead, “we still haven’t talked to the kids properly about Damien.”  
The sound of his name caught Isaac’s attention.  
“Well you might want to get on that,” Carey drawled, “it’s the best option I could come up with. It’s not safe for him to be on the road and he’s closer to you than he is to me. Or I’d have told him to come here and pretend to be Mark.”  
“Where is he?” Taylor frowned again.  
“Uh… South Carolina somewhere I think. He might have moved since I spoke with him.”  
“What’s going on?” Zac was frowning as well.  
“Carey wants Alex to come here and hide out,” Taylor’s other hand went to his hip.  
“What?” Isaac’s brow rose.  
“Hide out?” Zac looked to Isaac for guidance.  
Isaac just shrugged.  
“Look you know I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate,” Carey pointed out dismally, “please just take him until we find somewhere else to put him.”  
“He can go to the house Zac was at, as far as I know that hasn’t been burnt,” Taylor shrugged.  
“Great. Just let him know the address when he gets there and I’m sure he’ll be on his way.”  
“But how long-“ Taylor flinched when Carey suddenly ended the call.  
He grit his teeth and resisted the urge to throw it again.  
“So…?” Zac prodded.  
“I guess he’s coming to get the address,” Taylor sighed, slipping the phone into his pocket.  
“Coming… where?” Isaac asked, “the studio or your house?”  
“Fuck,” Taylor spat, pulling the phone out again.  
Instead of calling, he texted Carey. The reply made him sigh with relief.  
“Studio,” he confirmed.  
“Home might have been awkward,” Zac smirked.  
“Speaking of…” Isaac swivelled in the chair, “how are Penny and Ezra doing?”  
“They’re okay,” Taylor put the phone away again, “whatever they were given wore off in the first day.”  
“And you haven’t talked to them about Damien yet?”  
“Who’s Damien?” Zac looked between them.  
“Another clone,” Isaac supplied.  
“No. I asked them to keep it secret and I’d tell them the full story later,” Taylor winced.  
“Aren’t we overloading on clones?” Zac raised a brow, “I thought there was only supposed to be seven. Doesn’t that make eight?”  
Taylor just shrugged.  
“Maybe they didn’t count Damien because he works with them?” Isaac suggested.  
“He wasn’t working for them when he was born,” Zac scoffed.  
“I don’t know and I don’t really care,” Taylor admitted, “we’re having enough trouble with the ones we have now.”  
“How long until he gets here?” Isaac asked.  
“Carey thinks he was in South Carolina somewhere so maybe around lunch?” Taylor shrugged.  
“And why is he hiding?” Zac was rubbing his chin, “do we need to be worried?”  
“I’m not entirely sure, I just think it has something to do with the whole blackmailing us thing. Maybe they wanted to take him in before Jesse showed up? I don’t know.”  
“Hopefully we can get them on their way tonight,” Isaac turned back to the computer.  
“Yeah… I’m sorry guys,” Taylor frowned again, “here we are supposed to be diving back into work and we’ve been here five seconds and this has already interrupted.”  
“Not your fault,” Isaac insisted, clicking away.  
“You know I haven’t spoken to Mom or Dad in months?” Zac’s brow rose, making Taylor look across at him.  
“Why?” he asked.  
Zac just shrugged.  
“I just don’t feel the need to talk to them and not get any questions answered,” he replied.  
“We’re all in that boat,” Isaac insisted, “but they are still our parents.”  
“I know that I’m just angry,” Zac scowled, “why aren’t you?”  
“I never said I wasn’t.”  
“They know what’s going on,” Taylor folded his arms, “I feel like if they cared they’d at least check in on all of us.”  
“Of course they care,” Isaac scorned, “this is hard on them too don’t forget. We don’t even know what they want with them yet.”  
“How often do you talk to them?” Zac asked.  
“Every other day.”  
“I’m down to about once a week,” Taylor admitted, “it’s just become the same conversation over and over. The ‘hey, you’re still alive’ convo.”  
“Yeah I get that,” Zac agreed.  
“Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least stay in contact,” Isaac still hadn’t bothered turning around, “they’re going out of their minds a little worrying about everybody already considering they can’t be here.”  
“So why don’t they say anything?” Zac frowned, “why don’t they just tell us what the Hell’s going on?!”  
“We’ve got the gist, I guess that’s all we need,” Taylor shook his head, “I just wouldn’t mind knowing a bit more about Morris and his plans is all.”  
“They haven’t seen him for over thirty years, they probably don’t know any of his ‘plans’,” Isaac looked over his shoulder.  
“So why don’t they just say it?”  
“I’m not gonna argue,” Isaac turned back, “this isn’t my fight. Just don’t do or say anything you guys will regret.”  
Taylor and Zac shared an awkward glance.  
“Might be too late for that,” Zac smirked.

“How did it go?”  
Carey looked over his shoulder as Emma entered the room, seeing him sitting at the kitchen bench with his cell phone beside him.  
“Just got off the phone with Alex,” he admitted, “he’s going to head into Tulsa. Taylor can give him the safe house details and hopefully he’ll be okay there for a while.”  
“Heard anything from Jesse?”  
Carey shook his head, unable to hide his worry as she came to rub his shoulder.  
“I think he’s gone,” he admitted, “I think they know what they’re dealing with now and they’re not going to let him get one over on them again.”  
Emma hugged him from behind making him sigh.  
“Let’s just hope we’re never in a position where we need his help again.”  
“You’ve managed so far,” Emma assured, “and you were going after Taylor… eventually.”  
“Only with Mark’s help,” Carey pointed out.  
“Have you heard from him yet?”  
Carey shook his head.  
“I’ve tried calling. I even tried calling the building managers. Nothing. I can’t even ask Alex to check on him because he’s on the road.”  
“Are you worried?”  
“He’s done this before, but yeah I’m worried.”  
“Maybe a trip to Chicago is in order?”  
“If he’s even in Chicago,” Carey shook his head, “who knows?”  
“What was the last you heard from Alex?”  
“That he hadn’t left the apartment.”  
“So…” she leant over slightly, “maybe that’s a good place to start?”  
Carey sighed again.  
“Maybe,” he relented, “if I don’t hear from him tomorrow I might book a flight out.”

Jesse looked up from where he sat on the bed as the door to the cells opened. He wasn’t at all surprised to see Morris walk through, accompanied by a handler.  
“Good morning Mr Musgrove,” he greeted, “I hope you enjoyed your breakfast.”  
“Let’s cut the pleasantries,” Jesse insisted, “what do you want from me?”  
Morris paused with a grating smile.  
“Comparative testing, to compare with the data we received from the Hanson brothers,” his hands went behind his back, “and aside from that it seems we need to do a more extensive interview. Some questions about your past have come up. I don’t suppose you’d care to elaborate straight away to save us the trouble?”  
Jesse just shrugged.  
“No?” the doctor’s brow rose, “then I guess we should get started.”  
He gave the handler a nod, who armed the tranquiliser gun he’d had hidden in his coat. Jesse just sighed, preparing for himself to collapse back on the bed.


	2. Chapter 2

Mark leant back into the cool wall as she gently stroked his hair. He just wanted to sleep but she wasn’t ready to let him yet.  
“I’ll be right back,” she whispered a promise, “I’ll just freshen up and we can get ready for bed.”  
Mark groaned at that. His reaction caused her to slap him across the face before roughly grabbing hold of his chin.  
“Don’t be like that,” she smiled sweetly, “you might even get some sleep tonight. If you behave.”  
She stood up from where she’d knelt beside him, stepping back a little as she began to strip. Her body was certainly impressive, but he couldn’t focus on it. He was trying hard not to throw up.  
She turned her back on him and seductively leant into the shower to turn it on. Once it had filled with steam she threw him a smile before stepping in and closing the glass door. As soon as it shut Mark was pulling on the hand cuffs holding him to the pipes under the basin.  
He struggled to get his right hand low enough, but his fingertips just barely managed to grace his lips. From between his teeth he carefully pushed a paperclip with his tongue, fumbling with it before managing to finally get it between his pointer and thumb.  
He’d decided she was going to regret the office sex earlier in the day.  
He tried to be quiet and keep his eye on the shower door as he bent the clip and slid it into the lock on his left wrist. In seconds he had his wrist free.  
He caught the hand cuff so it wouldn’t clatter against the pipes, easing it over until he could drop his arms into his lap. He took the moment to take a few deep breaths before eyeing the bathroom door.  
He took his time getting out, worried that she would hear him, but once he made it through the door he bolted.  
He aimed for the front desk, fumbling as he searched through for the keys to the Camaro and not caring how much noise he made now. Once he found them he had a quick look for his cell phone, soon discarding the idea and desperately hitting the button for the elevator. He could find another phone once he got out he just had to get out first.  
He leant his forehead against the wall, listening to the elevator slowly rising. He was concentrating so hard he didn’t hear her footsteps. The first clue he got was the Taser hitting him in the back.  
He went down hard. The jolts were longer and more severe than her usual dosage, and by the time he recovered enough to look upward she was already standing over him. Completely naked and wet.  
“You nearly made it,” she sounded like she approved, but her expression was one of confusion, “it’s further than you’ve ever gotten before.”  
He coughed as soon as he was able to, rolling over onto his side. He was so close to passing out that she was already becoming a blur.  
She knelt down in front of him, finger poised above the trigger. He could feel the pins still lodged in his back but he knew he couldn’t reach them yet.  
“There’s something wrong with you,” she frowned, looking him over, “you’ve never given me this much trouble before.”  
“I’ve been trying to tell you,” Mark’s voice was barely getting out, “I’m not Colin. Colin’s dead.”  
He heard the elevator doors opening behind him and cringed. He’d been so close.  
“Colin’s dead?” her brow furrowed, “why would you say such a thing?”  
Before he could respond, she fell to the side. The first thing he noticed once he’d registered it was the blood coming from her temple.  
Feeling his heart racing but still unable to move properly, he looked up to see a dark shadow stepping over his legs. He couldn’t see the person’s face but he could just make out the silenced gun they were holding casually to their side.  
Unable to fight back if someone had actually come to kill Colin, he dropped his head to the floor again. The woman’s open eyes were staring lifelessly back at him.  
He closed his own as he heard the footsteps coming closer before finally passing out altogether.

“That could be him,” Taylor looked up as they heard a knock on the front door.  
“We should have told him to go around back,” Isaac jumped up to go and see.  
“Too late now.”  
Taylor gave Zac a signal through the window as Isaac disappeared, and he dropped his headphones before standing from the drum kit. Isaac quickly made his way through to the front foyer where he saw two people standing at the door. Pausing for a moment to make sure one of them was indeed a clone, he opened the door and ushered them inside.  
“Thank you!” Alex insisted even before the door closed behind him, “I didn’t know what else to do, we didn’t have anywhere to go.”  
“It’s okay,” Isaac insisted before Alex even seemed to realise that it wasn’t Taylor he was talking to.  
Isaac offered a hand.  
“Isaac,” he introduced awkwardly.  
“I know,” Alex shook his hand, eyes slightly wide, “this is my Mom, Judy.”  
“Hi Judy,” Isaac offered her a smile as he shook her hand as well, “let’s see about getting you folks on your way as soon as possible.”  
“Is Taylor here?” Alex asked warily as Isaac began to lead them toward the back of the offices.  
“He is, he just thought it’d be better if he didn’t answer the door in case someone saw,” Isaac shrugged.  
“Good idea,” Alex’s mother was obviously not happy to be there.  
The first person they saw was Zac in the hallway who also quickly introduced himself. Taylor had stayed sitting in the sound room until he heard their voices getting closer.  
“And here’s Taylor,” Isaac walked in first, Alex following closely behind.  
“Hey,” he greeted before Alex darted for him and grabbed his hand.  
“Thank you, thank you!” he stressed, “I just didn’t know what else to do! Carey said you had the safe house information and I didn’t want to intrude on you guys here but I didn’t want to get it over the phone in case they were following me and maybe we couldn’t use them anymore and-“  
“Alexander,” his mother’s voice scorned.  
“It’s okay,” Taylor insisted, immediately noticing her stare, “more importantly, are you guys okay?”  
“He’s running out of his medication and we need a new car,” her arms were folded.  
“Well… we can’t help with the meds but maybe a car,” Zac suggested, “why do you need a car?”  
“We hired the one we have, but we’ve gone a few days over deadline now,” Alex admitted, shoulders suddenly hunching at his mother’s tone, “so… technically it’s like… stolen?”  
“Do you have money?” Taylor asked him.  
“What kind of question is that?” Judy scorned from behind him.  
“I do,” Alex nodded sullenly.  
“I’ll see what I can find locally,” Zac promised before disappearing to go fetch his phone.  
“Judy can I get you something? Something to drink maybe?” Isaac offered, sensing the tension.  
“Sure.”  
“Would you like to come this way and see what we have?” Isaac indicated for her to follow him from the room, “we weren’t really expecting company so we don’t have much but hopefully-“  
Alex visibly calmed the moment she’d left. Taylor was watching him curiously.  
“Are you guys okay?” he asked, indicating the door.  
Alex shrugged.  
“It’s just been kinda rough on her is all,” he hugged himself defensively, “having to pack up and move all of a sudden. Being held hostage in her own home. They could have killed her.”  
“They could have killed you too,” Taylor pointed out, leaning back against the Wurlitzer, “I mean they had you hostage as well. Not to start anything but she seems to be acting like it’s your fault.”  
“Maybe it is,” Alex shrugged, “maybe the whole thing is my fault.”  
Taylor’s brow furrowed and he looked toward the door.  
“How can it possibly be?” he was confused, “we weren’t even born yet.”  
“But it might be my fault that we were found,” Alex was rubbing his arm nervously, “and if it was, that means everything that’s happened is on me. The labs, the kidnapping, the wanting me dead…”  
“Wanting you dead?” Taylor’s heart leapt from his chest suddenly.  
“The guy that Jesse killed at my place was going to kill me,” Alex admitted, keeping his eyes down as they had been since he’d walked in, “Mark said they said something about it being too dangerous to let me go.”  
“Because of the hacking?” Taylor asked before looking up as Zac appeared at the door.  
“Ah… hey,” Zac looked between them, “we’ve got a problem. You might want to see this.”

Isaac stood back as Alex’s mother chose her drink from the refrigerator, taking her time despite the door being open for a long time already.  
“If you don’t mind my asking…” he was regretting it already, “you don’t seem all that happy to be here, even though we’re trying to help you…”  
She huffed a sigh as she finally chose a soda and stood up again. Isaac closed the door.  
“Not to try and tell you how you should be feeling or anything, but I’m wondering if this is something personal or…”  
“The three of you ruined my boy’s life,” she sent him a glare before turning away to open the can.  
Isaac blanched for a moment, not expecting that.  
“I’m sorry?” his brow furrowed.  
“You and your music,” she waved vaguely in the direction of the studio.  
“…How?” he was afraid to ask but did it anyway.  
“You were everywhere!” she exclaimed, as if everything had been boiling up to this moment, “your faces were on everything, that song was all over the radio _and_ TV! There was nowhere to escape from that! I had to pull him out of school because they wouldn’t leave him alone. You boys have no idea what he went through just because he shares that one’s face!”  
Isaac paused as he digested it. She took the time to finally have a drink.  
“So you’re saying… Alex was bullied at school because he looked like Taylor,” he put it together.  
She just rolled her eyes. He was beginning to wonder if inviting her inside where all their sensitive equipment was had been a good idea.  
“Look… I sympathise, I do,” he assured, “but we literally had nothing to do with the fact that he went to school with a bunch of assholes.”  
Judy was about to retort when they saw both Zac and Taylor passing down the hallway. Alex followed behind, stopping in the doorway.  
“What’s going on?” Isaac asked.  
Alex just shrugged.  
“Excuse me,” Isaac went to pat Judy on the shoulder, but thought better of it and just walked around her instead.  
Zac had made it to the foyer where Taylor saw someone in a long black coat looking out the window. He heard their footsteps and turned back, grinning once he saw who it was.  
“What the…?” Taylor didn’t recognise him.  
“You don’t know him?” Zac caught on.  
“IKE?!” Taylor called over his shoulder, not taking his eyes off the stranger.  
“You are Taylor,” he pointed toward him, stepping closer.  
By now Alex had appeared in the doorway as well, and Isaac nearly bowled him over in his rush to answer Taylor’s call.  
“Oh…” he stopped when he saw who it was.  
“Is this the guy you met?” Taylor asked him.  
“Yeah, it’s-“  
“Keandre,” Alex finished for him, making all eyes look toward him, “you’re Keandre Moreau.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Étrange…” Keandre had moved toward Alex, staring into his face.  
“How did you know that?” Isaac’s brow had risen at Alex’s revelation.  
“Do you know him?” Taylor asked, watching Keandre reach a ring-covered hand out to touch Alex’s shoulder.  
"No. I saw his profile," Alex shrank back a little.  
“You didn’t tell me he was goth,” Taylor said between his teeth.  
“I didn’t think he was,” Isaac’s brow rose before pushing Alex aside, “Keandre? Why are you here?”  
Keandre’s eyes had gone from Alex to Taylor. Taylor found his stare unsettling.  
“To see you,” Keandre indicated his eyes, “I been wait, at the hotel. I see you come. I come.”  
“He’s probably been staying at the Fairfield,” Isaac surmised.  
“Yeah we got that,” Zac scorned.  
“Fairfield, oui,” Keandre nodded in agreement, “who are you?”  
He was looking at Alex.  
“My name’s Alex,” he awkwardly replied.  
“When did you get here?” Isaac went on.  
“When er…” Keandre considered, “three days.”  
“You’ve been waiting for us for three days?” Taylor was surprised.  
Keandre didn’t respond, not entirely sure of what he’d said.  
“You are…” he had trouble with wording again, focusing on Alex, “you are two. Where are more?”  
“Not here,” Isaac replied, “other cities. Los Angeles, Chicago…”  
“Ah,” he nodded.  
“Another one?!”  
Everyone turned when Judy made an appearance, looking none too happy.  
“Mom-“  
“How many are there?!” she demanded as he tried to pull her back down the hallway, “that’s like five now!”  
“Why are you here?” Taylor folded his arms, returning his attention to Keandre, “why did you come to Tulsa?”  
Keandre held up a finger to stop him before pulling out his cell phone. He opened a translator before holding it close to his mouth.  
“J'ai beaucoup plus à apprendre,” he said.  
“ _I have a lot to learn_ ,” the translator said out loud.  
“That’s a much better way than I was doing it,” Isaac’s brow rose.  
“ _Mieux que je faisais_ ,” the translator said.  
Zac smirked in the background.  
“I don’t know how we’re gonna do this,” Taylor lowered his voice so the translator wouldn’t pick it up, “how are we supposed to explain that he’s probably safer at home?”  
“I don’t know about that…” Isaac winced a little.  
“Why?” Taylor frowned.  
Isaac hesitated before stepping closer to Keandre. Keandre watched him curiously before Isaac took hold of his left wrist. Seeing what he was doing, Keandre began to roll up the sleeve.  
“He told me he was jumped by some random on the way home one night, I think,” Isaac frowned, “and when he woke up…”  
Taylor came closer, a feeling of dread in his gut. The moment he saw the lump signifying the chip in his arm he backed away.  
“They know he’s in Tulsa,” he looked to Isaac, the translator going off in the background like an odd French echo, “they could come for him anytime.”

Mark groaned as he came to, seeing nothing but light as he struggled to open his eyes. The first thing he realised was that he was still on the floor. Using his left hand to push himself up a little, he suddenly became a lot more alert once he’d focused on the body still in front of him.  
He sprang into a sit, his bare back hitting the closed doors of the elevator. Grimacing as the cold only served to wake him up further, he forced his eyes open again when he heard footsteps returning from the dining area.  
“You’re awake.”  
He recognised the voice before the face. It was Russo’s right-hand man.  
“More’s the pity,” Mark muttered, hand going to his forehead as he registered a pounding headache.  
He paused when he realised he was still wearing the right hand cuff.  
“I see you met Trixie.”  
His eyes went to the body again.  
“She never said her name,” he frowned, “did you guys do this?”  
“Do… what?”  
“Set this up? Did you send her here?”  
“No,” the man looked down at her, “she was a fixture in Colin’s life. I wasn’t aware he’d chosen this week.”  
“Why did you kill her?”  
“I overheard you convincing her that you were not Colin,” he looked Mark in the eye, “we can’t have that. The less people that know he’s dead, the better for us.”  
Mark grunted at that, realising his mistake.  
“Then why are you here?”  
“You weren’t answering your phone. Russo has a job for you.”  
Mark closed his eyes at that, leaving his head against the elevator. ‘Work’ was the last thing he wanted to think of right now.  
“What does he want?”  
“You should get cleaned up first,” the man suggested, “I called this in. He’ll be here soon.”  
Mark mouthed the word ‘fuck’, unsure if he could even stand at this point. But knowing who he was dealing with he leant forward onto his hands and knees and used the wall to help himself up. He waited a moment to make sure he was balanced before dismally heading back for the bedroom where he knew the key to the cuffs had been left.  
At some point while he was getting cleaned up he heard the elevator stopping at least twice. He tried to ignore it as he had a quick shower and threw on some of Colin’s clothes. The thin white material of his fancy business shirts had never been enough to cover his tattoos but Russo already knew who he was dealing with so it didn’t matter so much.  
He quickly looked himself over in the bathroom mirror before finally emerging. He found Russo in the dining area waiting with his two favored henchmen.  
“Take a seat,” the one who’d shot Trixie invited him to sit opposite Russo.  
Mark took a quick look through the doorway toward the elevator. He couldn’t see the woman’s body anymore, but there was a definitive red patch left on the white tiles. He began to roll up the cuff on his left sleeve before taking a seat.  
“You’ve had an interesting week,” was the first thing Russo said.  
“That’s one word for it,” Mark couldn’t hide his distaste.  
He was only now starting to remember the phone call with Carey and it made him frown.  
“We are going to have a problem, I hope you understand, if you continue to tell people that you are not who we want you to be.”  
“It was the first time,” Mark defended, “what else was I supposed to do? She wasn’t letting me go!”  
The larger man smirked and Mark shot a glare in his direction.  
“You haven’t told anyone else?” Russo’s brow rose.  
“Of course not. I haven’t met anyone else.”  
“In all the time you’ve been here?”  
Mark just shrugged.  
“What can I say? I’m not the social type. What do you want?”  
“Straight down to business I see,” Russo mused, “Tony has a parole hearing coming up. We need Colin to make an appearance.”  
“What do I have to do for that?” Mark frowned.  
“We know you won’t be able to work the same magic as Colin did, but we will prepare you a script to follow,” Russo assured, “we have briefed Tony and he will help you any way he can. We will send him a copy.”  
“So I have to do it alone?” Mark’s brow furrowed, “showing my face isn’t enough?”  
“It rarely is with matters of the law,” Russo condescended.  
“When?”  
“Thursday,” the larger man replied.  
“Two days?!” Mark looked up in surprise.  
“You weren’t answering your phone,” the man shrugged.  
“Because I was being held prisoner by some kind of hired sex fiend!”  
“That’s not our problem.”  
“Can’t it be postponed?”  
“No,” Russo insisted, “that is not how it works.”  
“And Colin can’t just call in sick?”  
“You don’t show, Tony goes back to his cell for at least three months,” the third man in the room scoffed.  
“Great. So… what can I do to prepare for this?”

“What are we going to do with him?” Taylor kept his voice down as he and Zac retreated back into the studio, “we can’t exactly just put him on a plane back to France, but having him here is a danger to Alex.”  
“But Alex isn’t staying,” Zac pointed out, “that might give us some leeway.”  
“Maybe I should take Alex home. The house should be empty today.”  
“And if any of the kids come home?” Zac’s brow rose.  
“I don’t hear you coming up with anything,” Taylor scowled.  
“I’ll find him a car,” Zac promised, “I think we just all need to calm down until then.”  
“Hey,” Isaac appeared from the door behind them, “so I’m gonna send Keandre back to the hotel for… where is Alex?”  
“Ah…” Zac looked back over his shoulder before taking off toward the studio.  
“The hotel for what?” Taylor wanted elaboration knowing Zac could cover it.  
“I figured we’ll deal with him tomorrow. If they’re going to come for him then they won’t come here at least,” Isaac reasoned.  
“So they won’t find Alex,” Taylor nodded to himself, “hopefully we can have him on his way by tomorrow then.”  
“Then we can deal with Keandre,” Isaac agreed.  
“You got his room number?”  
“Figured I’d get his American number and text him when we’re ready,” Isaac shrugged.  
“Cool,” Taylor nodded at that before Isaac disappeared again.  
He frowned again when he heard raised voices coming from the studio and decided to head in that direction.  
He found Judy sitting on one of the couches first, before seeing Zac and Alex standing over one of his gaming consoles by the television.  
“And it screams when you eject the game,” Zac was saying.  
“I know, I’ve just never seen it!” Alex insisted, “mine’s still in a box in the basement because I was too busy working with the white One S when it came out.”  
“Oh I have one of those too. But I changed it up to the GW4 because the graphics were better-“  
“You’re kidding,” Taylor folded his arms, catching both their attention.  
“What?” Zac demanded.  
“And they actually lazer-burnt the box design onto it,” Alex ignored them.  
“And the controllers,” Zac handed him one, “to be honest most of the hardware is the same between the red and the white, this one’s just prettier.”  
“ _Man_ now I am extra depressed I had to leave it behind in Miami.”  
“This is the one we’re replacing you with,” Zac insisted, eyes on Taylor but pointing toward Alex.  
Taylor just rolled his eyes before going to check how Isaac was doing with Keandre. He hadn’t heard the front door so knew the Frenchman hadn’t left yet.  
“He does know all the words to your songs,” his mother said from the couch making Zac look up.  
He gave Alex a sly look.  
“Mom,” he scorned, his face going red.  
“You’re a Hanson fan?” Zac mused.  
“Force of habit,” Alex quickly covered, “do you have the Unchartered 4 console?”  
“Yeah over there.”

Jesse writhed underneath the doctor’s hands as they struggled to contain him. The wrist straps on the chair had been effective until he’d broken the actual arms of the chair and now they were flailing wildly.  
“Mr Musgrove calm down,” Morris tried to keep his tone level, “you are safe. You’re on American soil.”  
Jesse had squeezed his eyes shut, but opened them again at that. When he looked up to see Morris beside him and the three handlers that surrounded him, he began trying to work to catch his breath.  
“What happened?” he panted, eyeing the screen he knew he’d been watching.  
Once the handlers realised he’d come to his senses, two of them backed off. Morris began to unstrap his right wrist.  
“An unforeseen obstacle,” he replied, “one for which we may need to look into medication for.”  
“What?” Jesse’s brow furrowed, “you’re going to drug me?!”  
“For both your safety and ours,” Morris insisted, “believe me, I wish there was another way. This is going to highly complicate our comparative examinations.”  
Jesse groaned and leant back into what was left of the chair as they fussed around him. He wasn’t sure how much time he’d lost in the blackout, or what he’d done, but everyone in the room was looking very wary all of a sudden.


	4. Chapter 4

“Zac!” Taylor called from the other side of the room.  
“Yeah?!”  
“How’s that car going?”  
“Ah… yeah… can you do that?”  
Taylor huffed a sigh before turning to leave the studio. It had been getting dark outside but he was sure neither Zac nor Alex were any the wiser. They’d been playing for hours with no signs of stopping.  
“They’re not moving any time soon,” Taylor grumbled as he stepped back into the sound booth, “guess we’ll have to take care of this one ourselves.”  
“Relax,” Isaac insisted from his spot at the computer, “it’s probably the first chance _he’s_ had to in a long time.”  
“Tell me about it,” Judy muttered from the couch behind them.  
“Does he need to see a doctor for his medication or can he get it over the counter?” Taylor asked her.  
“Half and half. He needs a doctor for his-“  
Taylor jumped as his phone suddenly rang, quickly digging it out of his jeans.  
“Sorry,” he quickly apologised before seeing the caller ID, “it’s work.”  
“Work?” Isaac raised a brow before Taylor left the room to take the call.  
“Why was he asking?” Judy demanded of him once Taylor had gone.  
“I don’t know,” Isaac answered straight, hearing him talking in the hall.  
“Can you get hold of some? From wherever you musician types get stuff on the street?”  
Isaac didn’t have time to retort before Taylor reappeared in the doorway with an odd look on his face.  
“What?” he asked.  
“It’s Bex… we might have a gig?” Taylor raised a brow.  
“When?” Isaac frowned.  
“…Tomorrow night?”  
“No way.”  
“It’s the Tulsa World. They were putting on a youth thing and the big act they booked from Florida can’t get on a plane because of the hurricane. She said they sound pretty desperate.”  
“Tay we can’t play a gig tomorrow,” Isaac insisted, “we haven’t even practised in over seven months.”  
“We’ll have tonight and tomorrow,” Taylor shrugged.  
“Tonight if you can pull Zac away from his new best friend,” Isaac turned to look at them through the window.  
“Is that a yes?”  
Isaac paused, before heaving a sigh.  
“A short set. We stick to the basics. Songs we’ve played a million times.”  
“Sure.”  
“And minimal equipment.”  
“Of course.”  
“And make sure Zac’s okay with it.”  
Taylor grunted at that before taking the phone down into the studio. This time he made his way over and stood behind the television so he could look down on them.  
“Hey Zac.”  
“Yep.”  
“Gig tomorrow night. Downtown.”  
“Uh huh.”  
“So you’re cool with it?”  
“Uh huh.”  
Taylor paused, knowing he wasn’t digesting anything at all. Neither Zac’s nor Alex’s eyes had left the screen even to see that he was there.  
“Cool. I’ll take that as consent,” Taylor returned the phone to his ear as he walked away, “we’ll do it.”

“Where the Hell have you been?!” Carey demanded, “we’ve been worried sick! You know what Emma’s already been through with this pregnancy and now you throw this at her?!”  
“Calm the fuck down,” Mark insisted, holding his head as it continued to pound, “I called as soon as I could.”  
“It’s been three days. _Three days_ Mark!”  
“And that’s as soon as I could. Are you going to let me explain or do you need to yell a bit more because I’ll mute this thing if that’s all you want to do.”  
“Why are you being such a dick?!”  
“I’ll tell you why,” Mark snapped, “maybe it’s because I’ve spent the last three days chained up in this rich boy’s closet. Maybe it’s because the girl that did it to me is dead now. Maybe it’s because the mob have decided that I’m Russo’s personal little Ken doll just here to do his bidding. That one came out wrong. But _maybe_ it’s because my brother, the one person in the world who usually gives me the benefit of the doubt above anyone else, can’t be fucked actually asking what’s wrong here before he lays into me about why I wasn’t there for _him_.”  
There was a pause on the line and Mark actually checked whether or not Carey had hung up on him.  
“Okay you need to elaborate on this closet thing because my mind is going crazy here-“  
“She was some kind of dominatrix,” Mark relented, “she got in here while I was out and she was waiting for me when you called.”  
“ _Three days_?”  
“Three days.”  
“What did you even _do_ for three days?”  
“You want me to draw you a picture? Because I still don’t think they have skin-toned crayons.”  
“Actually they do now.”  
“They do?” Mark frowned.  
“If by skin tone you only mean white then yes. But no. Please don’t do that.”  
“Huh,” Mark set the decanter on the kitchen bench and took the shot he’d just poured.  
He grimaced as he set the glass on the sink.  
“So…?”  
“So what?”  
“So what’s the deal with Russo?”  
Mark groaned as he felt the alcohol going to his head already. He still hadn’t eaten anything proper in a long time.  
“Mark?”  
“Yeah, yeah,” he rubbed at his face, “I don’t know, this is some deep shit.”  
“Why’d they kill the girl?”  
“Because they caught me trying to tell her I wasn’t Colin,” he admitted right away, “turns out they don’t want anyone knowing I’m not him.”  
“Does anyone else know?”  
“No, not that I know of. I mean I always thought Ronaldo was suspicious but I think he likes me better anyway. Hardly a surprise.”  
“I told you to be careful. I told you to watch out for the shit that Colin was involved in.”  
“I know, I know,” Mark rolled his eyes, “too late for that now. He’s already got me by the jewels.”  
“Do you want me to come up there?”  
“For what?” Mark scoffed, “so he can blackmail you too?”  
“What do you think he’s going to do with you when he’s tired of the charade?” Carey pointed out, “you think he’s going to let you go, knowing all his secrets?”  
Mark sighed at that. He just hadn’t wanted to think about it at all.  
“I think you need to get out of there. Just come home and we’ll figure this out.”  
“I can’t,” Mark cleared his throat.  
“Why not?”  
“I gotta do something for him on Thursday. If I don’t show he’ll hunt me down.”  
“Does he know where you came from?”  
“I’m not sure. I don’t know what he knows.”  
“Then what’s the problem?”  
“The problem is… what if he runs into someone else and assumes they’re me?” Mark shrugged inwardly, “what if he runs into you, or Alex, or Jesse and thinks you’re me? I’m not taking that on.”  
“Mark… Colin’s death was not your fault,” Carey reiterated for the hundredth time, “there’s no way we could have known-“  
“If I hadn’t have been there he wouldn’t be dead,” Mark’s voice held venom all of a sudden, “bottom line Care. If my gun wasn’t there he couldn’t have used it.”  
“And he’d still be stuck in the lab having God knows what done to him. He wanted to die for a reason,” Carey insisted.  
“Like that’s any consolation,” Mark rolled his eyes again, “he didn’t want to die. He was talking about the safe houses. He had hope.”  
“Are you trying to tell me that in all the years we’ve known Colin, you suddenly think you could have controlled his actions?” Carey’s voice lowered, “you knew what he was like. If he wanted something, he got it. Nothing would stand in his way.”  
“Anything but Emma,” Mark raised a brow.  
“That is completely different and has nothing to do with this,” Carey seethed for a moment.  
“I’m just saying what you said,” Mark shrugged to himself, “you’re trying to tell me that no one could stop him once he put his mind to it. But you did that pretty well.”  
“Leave her out of this.”  
“Fine. But don’t tell me what I can and can’t feel about it,” Mark insisted, “you don’t get to choose that. _I_ don’t get to choose that.”  
“You know Emma told me about the tatt you got in Hawaii.”  
“Of course she did,” Mark eyed the decanter, debating another shot over something to eat.  
“Maybe you need to talk to someone,” Carey suggested, “maybe you need to get some of this off your chest.”  
Mark broke out laughing at that.  
“I’m serious!”  
“Who the fuck could I possibly talk to?” Mark mused, “Morris and his clan of Foot soldiers?”  
“I don’t know. I just don’t want you using again.”  
Mark’s face immediately fell at that.  
“Why would I?” he demanded.  
“I don’t know why you did to start with, so you tell me,” Carey came back with.  
“I’m not gonna throw away nearly ten years of getting my shit together,” he scorned, “despite your apparent lack of faith in me to not do it.”  
“It’s not that at all,” Carey insisted, “I just don’t know what Colin had access to, I don’t know what temptations you might have. I haven’t even been to that apartment before so I don’t know if he had stuff stashed away somewhere.”  
“I think if he had I would have found it by now,” Mark looked over his shoulder.  
“My point exactly.”  
“Don’t turn this into another one of those ‘mind your own business’ conversations. I’m getting tired of those.”  
“Then don’t do anything that warrants it being my business. When’s the last time you spoke to Dad anyway?”  
“The wedding,” Mark admitted, “I was going to call him after you.”  
“Good. Do it.”  
“Yes Sir,” Mark faked a salute.  
“And stop drinking.”  
Mark’s brow rose and he looked down at the decanter again.  
“Got to get rid of this stuff somehow,” he pointed out, “guy’s got an actual wine cellar in here. Pretty sure not much of it is wine though.”  
“As I’m sure you’ve been thoroughly researching.”  
Mark smirked to himself, turning to lean over the bench.  
“Maybe. Speaking of research… are you going back to work?”  
“Thinking about it,” Carey let out a little sigh, “I know Emma wants to after she’s had the baby but I’m trying to convince her to take more time. I think once we have a handle on everything I might start checking out the local aquariums.”  
“Are you worried about the Foot Clan?”  
“A little,” he admitted, “but we can’t put our entire lives on hold, can we? We still have to function. We just might have to be ready to pack up and leave if we have to, that’s all.”  
“And it’ll be harder with a kid too.”  
“Yeah…”  
“Another reason I don’t think it’s a good idea that you come here,” Mark admitted, a little sullen, “I haven’t got this thing out of my neck yet, and if Morris catches on to the fact that Emma’s pregnant…”  
“I appreciate the thought. I just would have appreciated the heads up more.”  
“We knew any kid of ours was going to be looked at anyway, because they’re ours,” Mark shrugged, “I didn’t think adding to the stress was exactly the best thing to do. Plus you were still in Hawaii when I found out. Something about jumping out of a window if I remember right.”  
“Yeah…”  
“I wouldn’t have thought that would be good for the baby.”  
“She’s okay,” Carey assured, “it wasn’t too high and she landed the best way she could have. I made her get checked over just in case but the doctor said they were both fine.”  
“Of course you did,” Mark mused, “as I often say, Care’s not just your name.”  
“Shut up.”


	5. Chapter 5

“You did what?” Zac’s brow rose.  
“You said yes,” Taylor insisted, “it’s booked in. We’re doing it.”  
“And no one thinks this is completely bad timing?” Zac looked around the room.  
A call from his wife had finally disrupted his gaming. Well after 10pm. Both Taylor and Isaac had already spoken with theirs to let them know they’d be home late. No one was at all surprised.  
“I think it’s great timing,” Isaac leant back in his seat, “A, it will take our mind off things for five minutes. B, if we _are_ being stalked it will distract them from Alex at least.”  
“Business as usual,” Taylor agreed, “show them life carries on, no matter what they throw at us.”  
“Did you hear him ask?” Zac looked to Alex.  
“I am not getting involved,” Alex shook his head, his eyes slightly wide.  
“So you did?”  
“We need somewhere to sleep for the night,” Alex’s mother cut in, commanding everyone’s attention, “it’s too late to go anywhere.”  
Alex’s face fell.  
“I could drop them at that motel not far from my place,” Isaac offered.  
“Like that won’t draw attention,” Zac scoffed.  
“Could we stay here?” Alex asked, “we won’t take up much room.”  
Taylor was already shaking his head and Zac saw it.  
“Probably not a good idea…” Zac reasoned, “unless one of us stays with you.”  
“Keandre might have room,” Isaac suggested before grimacing, “of course people seeing two of him coming and going might not be so great.”  
“Well they don’t really look alike,” Taylor muttered, getting an odd look from Zac.  
“I’m fine with a couch, I swear,” Alex insisted.  
“Anything is better than the bed at that motel in Florida. It was so hard you could feel the bugs underneath you all night long,” Judy added.  
“I’ll stay,” Taylor gave in, folding his arms, “I’ll spend the night here.”  
“What about Nat?” Isaac asked.  
“If I tell her the truth she’ll get it,” Taylor assured.  
“Good. Well I’m staying here,” Judy made herself more comfortable on the couch where she already was.  
“I’ll take one in the studio,” Alex looked to Taylor for confirmation.  
“Guess I will too,” he replied.  
“Then we should hit the road,” Zac looked to Isaac.  
“Unless you want to get some practise in tonight?” Isaac suggested.  
Zac gave Judy a pointed look.  
“Never mind,” Isaac stood from his seat and grabbed his jacket, “the sooner we leave, the earlier we get in, the earlier we can start.”  
“I’m gonna call Nat,” Taylor made to back out of the room, “what about Keandre?”  
“He texted a while ago saying he was going to bed. I’m sure we’ll hear from him tomorrow.”  
“Okay,” and Taylor disappeared.  
“Sorry to be such a burden,” Alex was fidgeting anxiously, “I didn’t mean for it to get so late. We should have left ages ago.”  
“It’s my fault too,” Zac insisted, giving him a pat on the back.  
“Yeah we’ll blame Zac for this one,” Isaac insisted as he walked past the two, “nice to meet you Alex.”  
“You too,” Alex ducked his head as Isaac slipped out of the room.  
“Relax,” Zac insisted as he switched the lights off, “you’ll be fine here with Tay.”  
“Didn’t they take him from here before?” Alex frowned.  
“Yes… but he’s pretty sure they aren’t coming after him again for a while. Some agreement they had,” Zac backed out of the room, indicating for Alex to follow him.  
Taylor was pacing the hallway while on the phone to Natalie.  
“I don’t think that keeping their word is something they’re particularly known for,” Alex folded his arms as Zac closed the door behind him so his mother could sleep.  
“Unfortunately, we have nothing else to go on right now,” Zac pointed out.  
He quickly grabbed some dusty blankets to throw on the couches while Taylor was still on the phone. By the time he was ready to leave Taylor had ended his call, and Alex had already settled onto the couch in front of the television. Taylor made sure the lights were off before disappearing into the office to do a little more work before coming back to retire on the second studio couch. Alex and his mother had well and truly passed out by the time he got there.

“Lights out.”  
Jesse’s eyes went to the door as the handler disappeared and it closed behind him. The moment it shut the lights did indeed go out.  
His eyes then went to the security camera above the door before turning his head slightly on the pillow. In one quick movement the small yellow pill slid from where it had been sitting under his tongue and fell onto the pillow.  
Feigning movement just to get comfortable, he managed to slide it under the bedsheets and sit it in the lining of the pants they made him wear. He’d dispose of it the next time he had to go to the bathroom.  
The last few days on these pills had been a bit of a haze. He thought he remembered most of what had happened, but it was almost like he’d been in a dream state. He’d just felt so lethargic on them. He knew the doctors weren’t happy with the results they were getting because of them and he could hardly blame them. He’d found himself barely able to function.  
So it was time to try something new. It was time to play a little game.  
The following morning he took his time getting through his breakfast. No one rushed him, having seen the effect the drugs had had on him already. It wasn’t until around lunchtime that he was fetched for his next lot of examinations. He followed the handlers from the room obediently, this time keeping a careful eye on the floor’s security. They hadn’t seemed to up it since he’d broken Taylor and Isaac out. Before they’d medicated him he’d had a secure escort any time he’d had to leave the cells, but since then he was back to the usual handlers.  
Today’s exams covered his many smaller scars that hadn’t been recorded on his induction in Nevada. Thankfully all he had to do was let himself be photographed and move slightly when they told him to. They didn’t bother asking for the stories behind any of them and he was glad. For one, the less he spoke the better. For another, he didn’t remember a lot of them. He didn’t _want_ to.  
It took them hours to complete, making sure they painstakingly recorded every scar, every mole, every possible dermatological abnormality. By the time they were done he was late for his dinner hour and the handlers were in a rush to return him to his cell. This meant they were distracted.  
It was time to play the game.  
Quickly making sure no one else was in the corridor, and taking in mind the angles of the security cameras, Jesse took out the handler behind him with a single sharp blow to the jaw. Keeping the initial momentum it was easy to do the same to the other when he turned at the noise the man’s teeth had made.  
Suddenly standing alone in the corridor and taking a moment to appreciate how easy it had been, he turned and fled toward the same staircase he’d led Isaac and Taylor to. Knowing he had barely a minute or two before they were discovered he took the stairs as many as he dared. He wasn’t back at full strength yet and didn’t want to ruin his chance at freedom in the first dash.  
The moment he opened the outside door an alarm went off. Cursing that he hadn’t thought to check if they’d armed it, he took a quick look around for the outside security guards. There weren’t any in sight but he knew it wouldn’t be long.  
He heard shouts before he’d reached the end of the car lot in his aim to get out to the road where he’d left his truck. He knew it wouldn’t be there but his plan was to wait it out and eventually hitchhike. Knowing he had to have been seen running out, he didn’t think waiting was going to be an option.  
Instead he crossed the road into the trees and began to follow the road as best he could. If they started to search the area he knew they’d search outward and not directly down the road, so hopefully a car would pick him up before they caught up with him. It didn’t help that the clothes he wore were not only white, but made him look like he’d escaped from somewhere. He quickly began trying to come up with a cover story as he saw flashlight beams starting to bounce off the asphalt.

It was the early hours of the morning when the truck dropped Jesse off down the road. He thanked the driver profusely before waiting for him to drive off before he turned to walk away. He didn’t need even strangers figuring out where he was staying. Just in case.  
He made it back to the house before the sun came up. There were no lights on inside. Hoping he could just curl up beside Chelsea and face everything else in the morning, he used the hidden spare key to let himself in and quietly lock the door behind him.  
Finding his way around in the dark, he quickly changed clothes into a large shirt and some shorts before dumping what he’d been wearing in the trash. Pausing only to have a quick drink and use the bathroom, he made his way to the bedroom just as the sky was starting to lighten. He stepped around to the left side of the bed as he just barely made out her shape on the right, pulled the covers aside and slid himself under.  
He went to slide his hand around her waist before pausing. His hand had touched something wet.  
“Chels?” he kept his voice down, not wanting to wake her unnecessarily.  
He pulled the sheets back, trying to work out what was wrong. Unable to find a source he turned to switch the bedside lamp on.  
What he saw when he turned back took his breath away.

Mark’s eyes shot open as he heard the intercom going off in the kitchen. Praying that he’d been dreaming it, he groaned when it went off again.  
He barely managed to pull himself from the bed and remain upright long enough to make it to the kitchen.  
“Yeah?” he croaked out before clearing his throat.  
“Mr Reis I’m Janine, your friend D’Angelo sent me to make you up,” a high pitched voice came through.  
Mark frowned at that, thoroughly confused.  
“Sorry, what?” he tried again.  
“My name is Janine. I’m here to make you up for D’Angelo. You have a meeting today.”  
“What do you mean ‘make me up’?”  
“May I come up please?”  
Mark paused, not wanting a repeat of what had happened with Trixie. With a glance over toward the floor where he’d simply moved a rug to cover the bloodstain, he touched the screen so that the elevator would be free to stop at his floor.  
“Come on up,” he responded before making his way over to the door without waiting for a reply.  
He took the gun from the drawer beside the elevator and slid it into the back of his belt before heading back for the kitchen to make himself some coffee. He was just pouring it when the elevator opened.  
A slender brunette stepped out and it made him raise a brow. She couldn’t have been out of college yet.  
“So what do you want?” he demanded, catching her attention as he set the canister aside.  
“Mr Reis?” she confirmed, making her way into the kitchen.  
He gave her a tired nod. She seemed to be sizing him up as she set the case she’d brought with her on the counter.  
“D’Angelo asked me to come by and make you up for today’s meeting. Now I can see why.”  
“What does that even mean?” Mark frowned as she opened her case.  
His face immediately fell when he saw the vast array of cosmetics she’d brought with her.  
“Seriously?” he looked up again.  
“Seriously,” she sighed in response, already eyeing the scar again.


	6. Chapter 6

Mark was sitting on a bar stool at the kitchen bench when Russo’s right-hand man made an appearance a couple of hours later. Janine had made headway with covering his facial scar and had been working on one of his wrist tattoos.  
“Everything in order?” the man asked as he approached them.  
“He should be ready on time,” Janine assured, not bothering to look up.  
“What do I call you anyway?” Mark’s eyes narrowed as he just stood to watch them.  
“His name’s John,” Janine answered before he could.  
“John?” Mark’s brow rose, “every Tom, Dick and Harry is named John.”  
“It’s just a name,” his eyes narrowed in return.  
“It’s actually Giovanni but they call him Little Johnny,” Janine mused, making Mark smirk.  
He easily towered over Mark’s 6’2.  
“That’s enough,” John insisted.  
“What?” Janine asked innocently, still not looking up from her work, “if you’re going to be working together it’s only right that you’re introduced.”  
“So who’s the little guy?” Mark asked, “and where is he?”  
“We’re hardly working together,” John insisted, “and he’ll meet us outside the prison.”  
Mark’s face instantly sobered when he remembered where he was headed.  
“Haven’t seen one of those in a while,” he muttered absently, not counting the labs in his head.  
“Inside or outside?” John frowned.  
“What does it matter?” Janine cut in before Mark could refuse to answer, “he won’t be ‘him’ this time.”  
“You know what’s going on?” Mark was surprised.  
She paused, holding up the brush she was using.  
“Duh,” she scorned.  
“She’s Tony’s daughter,” John revealed, “she’s quite invested.”  
“Really,” Mark was now eyeing her off more warily.  
“Just means I need to do a good job,” she grunted, finishing with his wrist before moving up to a small one on his forearm.  
Once the majority of the work had been done, they moved into Colin’s ensuite so she could focus on his hair. John hovered in the doorway like a shadow to watch as she gelled and set it. For the first time Mark caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and had to do a double take. If it hadn’t been weird before it certainly was now.  
While they waited for the gel to set she began going through his wardrobe to pick out an outfit. In the break John handed Mark a set of papers.  
“Your script,” he informed him, “I’d advise you to stick to it.”  
“Would have appreciated some time to study,” Mark murmured as he quickly looked the pages over.  
“Just take it in with you,” Janine suggested as she went through Colin’s shirts, “pretend it’s your legal documents.”  
“Do I need any of those?” his brow furrowed.  
“Only what the courthouse provides,” John assured.  
“Do I need to know how to use them?”  
“It should be pretty obvious.”  
“Don’t panic,” Janine insisted, looking Mark in the eye, “Dad will help.”  
“He knows I’m not Colin, right?” Mark looked up toward John.  
“He does.”  
“Okay,” Mark breathed a sigh of relief, despite feeling as though it were premature.

“I think I found a car.”  
Taylor looked up as Zac appeared around the back of the truck with his phone.  
“Problem is they won’t be home until tonight so they can’t go and get it until then.”  
Taylor took the phone from his hand to have a quick look.   
“I hope it’ll do,” he sighed, “organise it for after the show. Maybe we can drop them off after.”  
“I’ll do that,” Zac took it back and sent off a quick message.  
“How long do we have?”  
“Load out in an hour, should give us plenty of time,” Zac replied, “I’ll be inside.”  
He turned to head back into the studio, leaving Taylor to keep loading the truck. Isaac appeared with a third guitar case a moment later.  
“Keandre was going to stop by,” he said once he’d loaded it, “I think I talked him out of it.”  
“I hope you did, we won’t be here for long,” Taylor frowned.  
“I figure Alex will be,” Isaac shrugged.  
“Maybe not. Zac’s organising the car for after the gig. We might have to take him with.”  
“That… does not sound like a great idea,” Isaac winced.  
“Well I hardly want to leave him here without supervision either,” Taylor looked him in the eye, “and the sooner he’s on the road, the better.”  
Isaac was about to agree when they heard a car approaching down the alley. As they both turned to look over their shoulders, Taylor frowned when he saw that it was a squad car.  
“That’s weird,” Isaac stood back, realising they weren’t stopping anywhere.  
Taylor stood his ground as they approached the back of the studio and pulled to a halt. Two officers emerged as Zac appeared at the door.  
“Hey I don’t know if you saw but there’s-“ he cut off when he saw the officers, “…never mind. You know now.”  
“Can we help you, officers?” Isaac couldn’t hide his worry.  
“Jordan Hanson?” one of them removed their sunglasses.  
“Yes?” Taylor frowned.  
“You need to come with us.”  
“Is something wrong?” Isaac asked for him.  
“Am I being charged with something?” Taylor’s face went a little red.  
“No, we just need to ask you some questions.”  
“They are somewhat sensitive,” the other officer warned before he could insist they do it then and there.  
“Can I make an appointment?” he tried instead, “we’re in the middle of loading out for a gig over at UT.”  
“We’re afraid this can’t wait,” the first officer shook his head, “we have to insist.”  
“What should we do?” Isaac asked his brother.  
“Keep loading,” Taylor shrugged, “get everything down there and I’ll come straight to the campus when we’re done. I’ll just get my keys.”  
He indicated to the police, “my car’s out front.”  
One of them nodded and Taylor slipped inside the back door. Once out of their sight he took a deep breath.  
“There’s a car out front too,” Zac was immediately on him.  
“Are they here for me?” Taylor looked over to where Alex stood by the couch, hugging himself nervously.  
“No,” Taylor insisted, “don’t worry.”  
“What do they want?” Zac frowned.  
“I don’t know,” Taylor shrugged as he fetched his jacket and keys, “I need to go down to the station. I’ll meet you guys at the venue. Just set up as much as you can. Do sound check if you have to.”  
“They didn’t say anything?” Zac asked, following him through toward the front door.  
“Just that it’s sensitive,” Taylor replied absently before stopping in the hallway, “can you call Nat and check on her?”  
“Sure,” Zac insisted, “you think something’s happened?”  
“I don’t know,” Taylor was already trying not to panic, “I just want to cover all bases.”  
“Can’t be Mom and Dad or they’d have called us all in,” Zac considered, “and let’s hope it isn’t clone related.”  
Taylor sighed at that before heading for the door.  
“I’ll see you there,” he farewelled before stepping out.  
There was indeed another squad car out front, and he frowned again when he saw the officers watching him. He made his way to his car and tried not to rush as he was escorted toward the station.

“Ready?” John came to check on the two in the bedroom.  
“Just about,” Janine assured as Mark affixed some cuff links.  
He didn’t know what they were made of, but they were heavy.  
“Keep your back straight,” Janine gave him a pat on the back, making him automatically straighten up, “and chin up. Confidence! Fake it until you make it.”  
“Story of my life,” Mark muttered as he stood in front of the mirror.  
“Then this should be a walk in the park,” she mused, stepping around to adjust his tie.  
“Let’s go. We don’t want to be late,” John insisted before leaving the room.  
Mark took a deep breath just trying to get in the right headspace. Janine slid a hand onto his shoulder in reassurance.  
“Relax. You’ll be fine,” she assured, “but not too much. I met Colin. He was so uptight all the time.”  
“It’s been said,” Mark agreed.  
“How long were you two estranged?” she asked curiously.  
Mark sighed, not wanting to lie to her. But he figured it might be practise for what was coming.  
“A while,” he replied, “I feel like I barely knew him.”  
“Maybe you’ll learn a thing or two now,” she mused, brushing off the jacket before leaving the room after John.  
Mark took one last look in the mirror before following.  
He was led down and taken out into the street where Janine bid him farewell and got into her own car as a large black car pulled up behind it. John opened the back door and indicated for Mark to get in. Inside he found Russo and the other assailant. John got in beside him and closed the door.  
“Mr Miller,” Russo gave him a nod as the car pulled away.  
They arrived at the prison with not much time to spare. Russo stayed in the car out of sight as John led Mark inside. He felt entirely odd being there in a professional capacity, but kept in mind Janine’s instructions and made sure he stood straight and spoke with confidence. Despite it actually being a con, he hadn’t expected to feel so much like a sheep in wolf’s clothing.

Two officers led Taylor into the station, the other car having diverted once they were sure he was complying. More nervous now than ever, especially since getting Zac’s text that he’d checked in with Natalie and that they were all fine, he followed in silence.   
He was led to a chair in the main office where he took off his jacket and took a seat. He was very conscious of the stares he was getting and opted to keep his eyes down.  
It was a while before an officer came to sit with him and he knew he was running out of time.   
“Mr Hanson, do you have any photo ID with you?” he asked as he sat down.  
“Sure,” Taylor dug in his jeans for his wallet.  
He quickly looked through before handing over his Oklahoman driver’s license.   
“Do you have any other forms of ID on you?” the officer frowned as he looked it over.  
“No,” Taylor frowned in return, “just other cards. My passport’s at home.”  
“Your passport confirms the same details as this?”  
“Of course. Can I ask what this is about?” he was obviously confused.  
“Can you tell me where you were last night?” the officer looked him in the eye, “roughly between the hours of five and ten?”  
“At the studio. My workplace, on Main Street,” he answered right away, “I spent the night there.”  
“Can anyone verify that?”  
“My brothers,” he replied thoughtfully, hoping they wouldn’t try going back just yet, “why?”  
“So you weren’t anywhere near Ansley, Louisiana?”  
“Of course not,” Taylor scoffed, “I wouldn’t have had time to…”  
He trailed off as the officer set an open folder on the desk in front of him. Taylor’s eyes went to it but he didn’t move.  
“We’re investigating this individual in relation to a heinous crime committed there last night,” the officer explained vaguely, “so I’m sure you understand why we had to investigate a possible link to you.”  
Taylor couldn’t help but gulp a little. Sitting in the open folder was Jesse’s original lab photo.  
“His name is Jesse Rick Musgrove, and we’d be very interested in any light you could shed on this case for us.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Is there anything else you have to say for your client, Mr Reis?” the justice asked condescendingly.  
“I think we’ve covered enough,” Mark nodded confidently, “it’s quite obvious that my client deserves to be paroled and is in fact no danger to society whatever. Never has been. He’s been nothing short of a glowing example to others on the inside and indeed, I believe, has even begun mentoring some of the younger inmates.”  
“We’re aware Mr Reis,” they weren’t even making eye contact, “and you’ve certainly gone over it plenty of times already.”  
“Then I have nothing left to say,” Mark sat back in the chair.  
“You have recommendations,” Tony muttered under his breath beside him.  
“Oh and I have recommendations from a number of high-standing members of both the legal board and the Chicago tribune.”  
“That will be unnecessary,” the justice assured, “we have all that we need from you today.”  
Mark mentally thanked him for that.  
“A decision will be made within two days. You’re dismissed,” the man finally looked up at them.  
“Thank you,” Tony gave them a smile as he got to his feet.  
Mark stood as well, waiting for Tony to lead the way out as he straightened his jacket. He followed him out toward the main prison where between two guarded gates Tony stopped him in the corridor causing him to back against the wall.  
“You did pretty good,” he said in a low tone, “where did they find you?”  
“I was in his apartment,” Mark frowned, wondering why he was asking.  
Tony looked him up and down as Mark looked down toward the guard.  
“Guess we’ll find out just how good you are in two days,” Tony mused before continuing on.  
Mark took a deep breath before following. They parted where he had to go back to the cells and Mark met John in the waiting area.  
“How was it?” he demanded right away as they made to leave.  
“Good,” Mark responded curtly, “we find out in two days. They didn’t bother taking the references.”  
“That’s not usually a good sign,” John frowned as they approached the car.  
“Tony approved,” Mark insisted, “he thought I did fine.”  
“We’ll see about that,” John opened the back door, indicating for him to get in.  
Mark stepped in without hesitation, shifting across the seat so John could get in beside him.  
“So…?” Russo’s brow rose.  
“Two days,” John replied as Mark began to unbutton the jacket, “and we find out.”  
Russo hummed a little as the car pulled out.  
“Tony thinks it went fine,” Mark assured, “and I felt pretty good about it. So…”  
“They didn’t take the references,” John cut in.  
“That’s not a good sign,” the shorter man on the Mark’s other side repeated.  
“I don’t think they needed them,” Mark shrugged, “the case was pretty well put forward.”  
“What should we do?” John’s eyes were on Russo.  
“About what?” Mark frowned.  
“We have some time,” Russo responded to John, “but he may come useful in some other ways.”  
“Unless he tells anyone,” John pointed out.  
“I’m not gonna tell anyone,” Mark scorned, “I’ve been quiet for this long, what makes you think-“  
“And Trixie?” the shorter man demanded, “we’ll be missing her.”  
“That was different,” Mark insisted.  
“That was a good test,” John rebutted.  
“A _test_?”  
“Let’s not worry the boy just yet,” Russo insisted as they neared the apartment, “we don’t know for sure that this hasn’t worked out.”  
“Whatever you say Boss,” John sat back in his seat.  
Mark sat in silence the rest of the ride, barely saying goodbye when they dropped him off at Monroe Street. He watched as the car pulled away again before heading inside.  
“Everything okay Mr Reis?” Ronaldo asked as he approached the elevator.  
“Sure,” Mark replied, just hoping it came quickly.  
“Is the movie over?” Ronaldo indicated his face.  
“I wish,” Mark muttered, glad when the doors opened almost right away.  
“Have a good night,” Ronaldo gave him a nod as they closed behind him.  
Mark took a deep breath as he fished for his cell phone in the breast of his jacket. He quickly found Carey’s number and dialled, putting it to his ear.  
“Mark?”  
“Care I think I’m in trouble,” he admitted.

“Heard from Tay yet?” Zac called down from the stage to where Isaac was playing on his phone just behind the curtain.  
Isaac shook his head before looking up.  
“Nothing,” he replied, “want me to text Natalie again?”  
“No you’d better not,” Zac winced, “I know she’s worried enough.”  
“We’re running out of time,” Isaac leant over the back of the stage, “do you think we should call it off?”  
“We can’t,” Zac scorned, “we’re all set up. They don’t have time to find anyone else.”  
Isaac shrugged dismally.  
“You know… there is another option,” Zac raised a brow.  
“What?” Isaac frowned.  
“Alex,” Zac lowered his voice so one could overhear, “apparently he’s a huge Hanson fan. He’d know all the songs. Especially since we’re only doing regular well-knowns.”  
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Isaac scoffed, turning to go back to his nearby car.  
“But if it does…” Zac muttered to himself.  
He quickly left the stage, going to find his laptop.

“What did you do?” Carey demanded.  
“We had a parole hearing for one of the mob guys. I had to play Colin as the lawyer to get him out of jail,” Mark explained as he started to undress in front of the mirror, “we don’t find out for two days if he gets out or not but they made it pretty clear I’m not worth keeping around if he doesn’t.”  
“What did they say, exactly?”  
“I don’t remember!” Mark threw the watch aside, “they were talking around it and they wouldn’t tell me anything and then Russo said I might be useful in some _other_ way yet…”  
“Slow down,” Carey insisted, “maybe it doesn’t mean what you think it means?”  
“It’s the fucking mob, Care! What am I supposed to think?!”  
Carey sighed and scratched at his head.  
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.  
“I don’t know,” Mark grumbled, struggling with the cufflinks, “there’s nothing you can do. I dug this hole and now I’m gonna die in it.”  
“Fuck that,” Carey snapped, “I’ll be there tomorrow.”  
“No!” Mark’s voice rose, “Carey don’t you dare! The last thing I need is for them to find out about you!”  
“I can take care of myself,” Carey scorned, “and you can’t exactly stop me. I’m not just gonna sit here and wait it out hoping that they don’t come for you. What happens if I never hear from you again?”  
“How am I supposed to run from these people?”  
“The same way you ran from Morris,” Carey insisted.  
“Yeah well I still got this thing in my neck, don’t forget,” Mark’s eyes narrowed, “what if they’re just waiting to pounce on you?”  
“Have you seen ‘em?”  
“I’ve been too busy worrying about the fucking mob and their prostitutes breaking in. I haven’t been watching for anyone else.”  
“We don’t know that they even have a base near Chicago. Colin was taken to Nevada first, remember. They might just be tracking you and be happy with that.”  
“Awesome,” Mark muttered.  
“Just sit tight. You’re on Monroe Street, yeah?”  
“Yeah,” Mark sighed, “call me when you get here I’ll have to let you up.”  
“I will. I’ll see you soon.”  
Mark hung up and dropped the phone onto the basin before grabbing a towel and rubbing his face. The makeup was hard to get off but he managed to get most of it. He stopped to take a deep breath and try to calm himself down, but looking in the mirror while he was still dressed up wasn’t helping.  
He quickly removed his belt and began to strip off the clothes so he could have a hot shower.

“No. No way. I can’t do that!”  
“Just calm down,” Zac insisted, “it’ll be easy.”  
“I don’t like it either,” Isaac shook his head.  
“Easy for you because you do it all the time! I can barely go for groceries without having a breakdown and you want me to get up on a stage?!” Alex was fretting, “I can’t do it! I’ll faint!”  
Isaac’s brow rose at that.  
“That’s one way of getting out of it,” he had to hold back a smirk.  
“You know all the songs,” Zac tried to reassure him, “you know-“  
“I can’t play piano!” Alex’s voice lowered, “I can’t play anything, I just know the words!”  
“I’ve accounted for that,” Zac insisted, “we have a backup recording we can use.”  
“We do?” Isaac frowned.  
“Yeah I just downloaded it onto my laptop,” Zac shrugged.  
“It doesn’t help if I can’t get onstage! How am I supposed to front all these people?!”  
“Do you have any Valium?” Zac asked his brother.  
“I do not,” Isaac replied.  
“Damn. What about alcohol?”  
“I don’t drink,” Alex frowned.  
“You might have to tonight.”  
“Do I not have a say in this?!” Alex exclaimed, “I _can’t_ do this! Why can’t we get Taylor back?!”  
“Alex, please,” Zac had resisted begging until now, “you’re the only way we can pull this off. If Tay shows up at the last second then nothing will matter, but right now we _need you_.”  
Alex’s hands went to his head as he took a few deep breaths.  
“You guys are on in five,” the MC for the night walked by, giving Zac a pat on the shoulder.  
Alex’s hands fell, his eyes wide as he watched him walk away.  
“Don’t panic,” Isaac put on hand on his shoulder to pacify him.  
“Why not?!”  
“Just follow our lead,” Isaac kept his voice calm, “we can cover and say you weren’t feeling well when it’s all over. We just gotta make it through this one set. One hour and it’ll all be over.”  
“Yeah don’t talk or anything,” Zac insisted, “just get up there and sing. It’ll be like karaoke.”  
“I’ve never done karaoke,” Alex hugged himself, “not outside of the basement.”  
Isaac gave Zac a look.  
“So pretend you’re in the basement,” Zac shrugged, “just… with added stage lighting.”  
“You make it sound easy but it’s not.”  
“I might have some whiskey in my car, that’s all I can offer,” Isaac was at a loss.  
“Get it,” Zac insisted, “we’re running out of time.”  
Isaac disappeared.  
“Can’t you wait for Taylor to come back? Please?” Alex begged Zac pitifully.  
“I wish we could, but we don’t know that he’s actually coming back,” Zac pointed out, “we don’t know what the cops wanted.”  
“What if the scientists are watching?” Alex’s brow furrowed, “what if they know Taylor’s gone and they see me up there? What if they shoot me?”  
“It’s a youth event, they’re hardly going to assassinate you in front of a bunch of kids.”  
Isaac reappeared just as the MC came to call them back. He handed Alex a flask.  
“Five seconds,” Zac insisted as they saw the lights dim.  
“Take a big gulp of this, don’t throw it up,” Isaac instructed softly, “then follow us.”  
“How well can you see without your glasses?” Zac thought to ask.  
“Not well at all,” Alex replied, glad for the distraction as he held the flask.  
He could feel his hands shaking.  
“Tay’s worn them before, we’re good,” Isaac reminded him.  
“Okay. Let’s do this,” Zac psyched himself up before heading up the stairs.  
Alex closed his eyes, trying not to hyperventilate.  
“You’ve got this, we believe in you,” Isaac rubbed his back, “come on.”  
He waited until Alex opened his eyes and nodded before following Zac. Alex waited until he was out of sight before slowly unscrewing the lid of the flask. A sudden hand on his back made him nearly jump out of his skin. Some of the whiskey went flying.  
“Don’t worry, I got this.”  
“Oh thank God!” Alex breathed a sigh, “I am so glad to see you.”  
Alex waited as he disappeared up onto the stage before taking a shot of the whiskey anyway. He had no idea how he was supposed to sleep the night after this.  
His second thought once he’d calmed down a little was that he needed to get out of sight, and fast.


	8. Chapter 8

“ _And we won’t go down…_  
Come on!  
 _And we won’t go down… yeah!  
And we won’t go down!_”  
Isaac was grinning as _This Time Around_ came to an end.  
“Thank you all for having us!” Zac stood from the drum set after his big finish.  
“We have to thank the Tulsa World for thinking of us,” Isaac added, “we know we weren’t who you were expecting tonight but we hope you’ve enjoyed it all the same.”  
“Good night!” Zac waved as the three of them headed offstage.  
When they made it to the bottom of the stairs Zac grabbed his shoulders.  
“Tay that was incredible! Where the Hell did you come from?!”  
“Zac that’s not Tay,” Isaac was grinning ear to ear as he offered his hand, “thanks Jesse, that was amazing.”  
“Wait, Jesse?” they could see the shock in Zac’s eyes.  
“Nice to meet you Zac,” Jesse offered his hand, “sorry to intrude or whatever.”  
“No, no. I think you just saved the night,” Zac insisted, shaking it thankfully, “thank you!”  
“Where’s Tay?” Jesse looked to Isaac.  
“The cops took him down to the station around 2pm. We don’t know why,” Isaac shrugged.  
“I think I might,” Jesse’s eyes fell before he turned to look over his shoulder.  
“What are you doing here?” Isaac frowned.  
“I’m gonna go find Alex,” Zac thumbed over his shoulder before heading for his truck.  
“I need my truck,” Jesse replied, watching him go, “I’m assuming you guys brought it back from Dallas. I need it.”  
“Sure. I mean we did,” Isaac agreed, “but how did you even get here? How did you get out?”  
“I hitchhiked,” Jesse scratched at his head, “but we might need to take this somewhere else before I answer any more questions.”  
“Right,” Isaac took a quick look around, “well… we need to pull the stage down and Zac needs to drop Alex and his Mom off somewhere, and then we’ll see what we can do. The truck’s at Tay’s place and we still haven’t heard from him.”  
Jesse looked uneasy at that, looking off in the direction of Zac’s truck.  
“Everything okay?” Isaac asked when he noticed.  
“No, no it’s not,” Jesse admitted, “but it’s nothing you can help with right now. Do me a favor and call Tay though. Just make sure he’s okay.”  
“I… had actually planned to,” Isaac just now remembered and quickly pulled out his phone.  
He quickly realised he had a missed call from his brother and returned it.  
“Hey.”  
“Tay what’s going on?!”  
“Long story but I’m on my way to the venue.”  
“No don’t come here,” Isaac quickly interjected, “meet us back at the studio. We need to talk.”  
“Okay. What happened? The set time’s over, right?”  
“I’ll tell you when we get there, we just need to pull down.”  
“Right. See you soon.”  
Isaac ended the call with a frown, looking up to see an expectant look on Jesse’s face.  
“Immediate plan is to regroup at the studio,” he informed him, “do you know anything about pulling down? Can you help us?”  
“I’m sure I can figure it out,” Jesse shrugged.  
“Great!”

“This is the place,” Zac pulled up against the sidewalk.  
“That must be the car,” Judy pointed it out, sitting in the driveway.  
“Want me to come with, or are you guys okay from here?” Zac raised a brow.  
“We’ll be fine,” Judy insisted, opening her door, “come on Alexander. Let’s get out of this hellhole.”  
Alex shot Zac an apologetic glance. Zac shrugged in response.  
“Thank you,” his voice shook a little, “for everything. I don’t know what we would have done without your help.”  
“It’s no bother,” Zac shrugged again, “just don’t make a habit of it.”  
Alex stared for a moment in worry before Zac smiled to show that it was a joke. Alex took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  
“Alexander?!”  
“Good luck,” Zac offered as Alex slid out of the truck, “call me!”  
“I will. Thanks again,” Alex insisted as he closed the door.  
Zac waited until they’d made it to the front door and someone had definitely answered before he pulled his truck away. Deciding he needed a distraction he turned on the radio.

Taylor was waiting at the front door when he saw Isaac’s car backing up to the studio’s roller door. Unsure if he had Alex with him, he resisted the urge to go and open it for them. Seeing a clone get out of the passenger seat he backed away from the window to wait.  
They seemed to take their time unloading before Isaac finally moved the car out and came back to close the door. Once he did Taylor finally made an appearance.  
“So what happened?!” he demanded before stopping in his tracks.  
He recognised Jesse instantly.  
“Jesse saved the day. Or night, rather,” Isaac insisted, “he went onstage pretending to be you. His accent didn’t even slip once.”  
“Why are you here?” Taylor focused on Jesse instead, “why would you be in Tulsa?”  
“I need my truck,” Jesse replied.  
“What’s wrong?” Isaac picked up, eyeing his brother warily.  
“I’ve got a better question…” Jesse took a step closer to Taylor, “what did the cops want from you?”  
Taylor was obviously uncomfortable at the question, and at Jesse being so close.  
“They asked me about you,” he admitted awkwardly, “they say you killed her. In cold blood. Is that true?”  
“Killed who?!” Isaac demanded.  
“No,” Jesse ignored him, staring Taylor in the eye, “no it’s not.”  
Taylor breathed a little easier at that.  
“I believe you,” he suddenly avoided eye contact.  
“Killed who?” Isaac tried again.  
“My wife, Chelsea,” Jesse’s voice lowered.  
“She was beaten to death last night,” Taylor’s eyes went to his brother, “in Ansley, Louisiana.”  
“It was one of Colin’s safe houses,” Jesse explained, “we’d been staying there the whole time.”  
“You don’t think Morris could have…?” Taylor frowned, worriedly.  
“I don’t know,” Jesse shook his head, “but I guarantee I’m going to find out.”  
Sensing the tension in the room rising, Taylor backed off a little.  
“Isaac said the truck was at your place,” Jesse’s eyes followed him.  
“Yeah I kept it around back,” Taylor admitted, “it’s just as you left it.”  
The three of them froze when there was a knock on the front door.  
“Who would be knocking this late?” Isaac frowned.  
“Not the scientists,” Jesse replied, “we should be good in that respect.”  
Taylor looked between them before walking around toward the entrance. When he saw the shadow of who was there his hands went to his head.  
“IKE?! You might want to take this one!”  
Isaac gave Jesse a confused look before following. When he saw who was there he rushed to the door to open it.  
“Keandre? What are you doing here?”  
“Can I…?” he indicated moving inside.  
Isaac took a quick look around before ushering him inside and closing the door.  
“What is he doing here?” Taylor asked from the far doorway.  
“I see the news,” Keandre indicated his eyes, looking warily at Taylor, “ _we_ on the news. One of we.”  
“Shit,” Taylor cussed, turning to look back down the hall.  
Jesse was waiting further down.  
“What is happening?” Keandre frowned, “why are we on the news?”  
“Come back here,” Taylor indicated for them to follow him as he turned back toward the studio.  
Isaac waited for Keandre to make the first move before following. It wasn’t long before he came across Jesse.  
“You are not Alex,” he looked him up and down.  
“And you’re not American,” Jesse’s eyes narrowed before looking to Taylor, “this is our number seven?”  
“In the flesh,” Taylor confirmed.  
“Jesse, meet Keandre,” Isaac introduced, “Keandre, Jesse.”  
“Is you on the news?” Keandre’s look mirrored Jesse’s.  
“What’s wrong with his eyes?” Jesse looked between Isaac and Taylor.  
“He’s wearing contacts. I don’t think they fit right,” Isaac explained, “his eyes are actually brown.”  
“Huh.”  
“Brown eyes,” Keandre agreed, indicating them.  
“Why is he in Tulsa?” Jesse looked to Taylor.  
“We don’t really know,” Taylor grit his teeth, “we think he just wanted to know more. Isaac didn’t really have time to give him the whole story and we still really haven’t.”  
“Maybe not knowing would be better?” Jesse suggested.  
“It’s been said,” Isaac spoke up, “unfortunately he’s already had a visit from our friends at the labs.”  
“Makes sense if they had his details already,” Jesse thought aloud, “how did you find him? Or did he find you?”  
“I was in Paris when we split,” Isaac admitted, “found him in a small town down near the Italian border near where we stayed.”  
“I wonder if that’s a coincidence or not.”  
“How could it not be?” Isaac frowned.  
“Guys I’d love to stay and chat all night, really I would,” Jesse insisted, “but I really need to get to my truck. I’ve got a lot of work to do. Starting in Dallas.”  
“You don’t know that Morris is responsible yet,” Taylor cautioned, “what if they had nothing to do with it?”  
“Who else?” Jesse scowled in return, “who else would come after us? Nothing was stolen, the cops automatically assumed it was me despite the visual evidence of a fight. And she was-”  
He cut off as his breath caught in his throat. It was still so vivid in his mind’s eye.  
“And she was just _there_. Like someone had put her there for me to find.”  
“Maybe you driving tonight isn’t such a good idea anyway,” Isaac suggested softly, noticing his fingers starting to bounce against his arm.  
“Yeah,” Taylor saw it too, “maybe you should just sleep on it. Spend the night in Tulsa. Start with a clear head in the morning.”  
“My head is pretty damn clear and I’ve only got one thing on my mind.”  
“What, murder?” Taylor’s brow rose, “is that it? Listen to yourself! You need to calm down! Please!”  
Jesse stared him down, and despite Taylor being well and truly intimidated by him he stood his ground this time.  
“We want to help you,” he insisted, “please, just let us.”  
In the pause that followed, Keandre raised his hand.  
“What we do about news?” he asked, “are we safe?”  
“Yes. We should be,” Isaac tried to reassure him, “Taylor spoke to the police already.”  
Keandre took a moment to put together what he’d said before nodding.  
“What are you going to do with him?” Jesse indicated his direction.  
“Once everything else is sorted we’re going to sit down and have a really long talk,” Taylor sighed to himself, “maybe tomorrow. But I guess we’ll find out what he wants to do and go from there. We don’t even know if he has a return flight.”  
Keandre shook his head at that.  
“What is it?” Isaac asked.  
“No flight,” Keandre indicated with his hand.  
“There we go,” Taylor shrugged.  
He turned to look over his shoulder as they heard the back door open. Seeing Zac appearing from the alley he took a step back.  
“Hey!” Taylor called out.  
“What is this, the clone clubhouse now?” Zac jogged over to them before looking up at Jesse.  
“You’re in trouble,” his brow rose, only making Jesse shrug.  
“I think we all are,” Taylor amended.  
“I just heard it on the radio,” Zac informed them, “they’re gearing up for a nationwide search effort.”  
“They did go to the media,” Taylor frowned.  
“Mark kinda warned us about this,” Jesse said thoughtfully, “he told me Morris said something about releasing the footage from Nevada to the cops. Something about… if they couldn’t find me the cops would.”  
“You think this is a result of escaping Dallas?” Isaac suggested.  
“It has to be,” Jesse shrugged again.  
“Why is he here?” Zac was eyeing Keandre.  
“He saw it on the news,” Isaac replied.  
“What did the cops say?” Zac looked to Taylor, “and what are you going to do about it?”  
“Right now we’re all going to stop and take a deep breath,” Taylor insisted, “and just lay low. I’ve asked Jesse to stay the night in Tulsa, tomorrow he can be on his way, and then we’ll deal with Keandre. Technically this whole media mess has nothing to do with us.”  
He shot Jesse a glance.  
“Sorry,” he quickly covered.  
Jesse just shook his head.  
“You know the paper’s going to be knocking on that door first thing in the morning though, right?” Isaac warned, “you might not want Jesse or Keandre here when the cameras show up.”  
“Right…” Taylor hadn’t thought of that.  
“Take a sick day,” Zac shrugged, “we can bring Keandre out to you guys.”  
“I don’t want him at the house,” Taylor scratched his neck awkwardly, “Jesse’s going to be enough for the kids to deal with.”  
“Then we’ll hold off for a bit. Do the Keandre thing in a few days.”  
“What is doing?” Keandre frowned, hearing his name being thrown around.  
“Ike can you explain?” Taylor asked.  
“What do you want me to do?” Jesse asked as Isaac disappeared with the Frenchman.  
“Come home with me,” Taylor insisted, “I think it’s about time you met the family, and who knows… it might be our last chance.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Now you’re sure the address is right?”  
“Mom I’m sure,” Alex grumbled, huddling down in the passenger seat, “we double and triple checked.”  
“Well you’d better get some sleep. We won’t be there until morning.”  
“That was the plan,” he muttered to himself, pulling his glasses off and closing his eyes.  
After the stressful night he could still feel his adrenaline pumping and knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But he was hoping now that he had a long drive to calm down on, the exhaustion would eventually take over.

“What did you tell them?” Jesse asked, keeping his eyes forward to the road.  
“Them? The family?” Taylor guessed, shooting him a glance, “nothing. They don’t know you’re coming.”  
“No,” Jesse corrected, “the cops. What did you tell them about me?”  
“Nothing,” Taylor answered a little too fast, “nothing. I didn’t have anything to tell.”  
There was an awkward pause.  
“I mean I did, I guess,” he corrected himself, “but I didn’t. I mean I didn’t know where you were.”  
“But you told them you knew me?”  
“No.”  
“Then why were you gone for so long?” Jesse’s eyes narrowed, “you were gone for hours according to Ike and Zac.”  
“Because I had trouble convincing them that you weren’t some long lost twin, and apparently the ID checks they went through took that long to come back,” Taylor defended, “I mean they went through _everything_. They checked with passport control to see how often I’d left the country in the last five years and all.”  
Jesse just stared for a moment before returning his gaze to out the window.  
“I also might have spent a long time trying to convince them of the double theory.”  
“Double theory?”  
“Yeah. You know… everyone in the world has a double out there somewhere,” Taylor’s brow rose, “I was just like ‘hey, maybe mine’s from Louisiana’.”  
Jesse smirked at that and Taylor was glad to finally get a reaction that wasn’t stoic.  
“So the younger kids might be in bed, but don’t forget Ezra and Penny have met Damien,” he reminded him, “I’m not quite sure how that’s going to go down, so…”  
“I’ll do what I can to make it easy,” Jesse promised.  
“Thank you,” Taylor nodded before chewing on his bottom lip.  
He hadn’t felt this nervous about anything in a while.  
As they approached his house Taylor noticed a truck parked on the side of the road.  
“That’s odd,” he thought out loud.  
“What?” Jesse’s eyes went to it immediately.  
“We usually recognise any cars that come down here. I don’t know that one,” Taylor admitted.  
“Want to stop?” Jesse suggested, “just in case?”  
“No,” Taylor insisted as he drove straight past, “I swear I’ve had enough fun this month. This year, even. I’m not inviting trouble.”  
Jesse took a look in the side mirror, clearly seeing the silhouettes of two people sitting in the truck. Reminding himself that the lab scouts always used vans, he tried to wipe the thoughts of coming back to check it out later in the night on his own.  
Taylor finally pulled into the driveway and up to the house. The front lights were all on waiting for him, and he quickly checked the time before making a move.  
“Wait here,” he gave Jesse a glance before getting out of the car.  
He went straight to the front door and made his way inside. The first person he saw was Penny.  
“Dad! You’re on the news!”  
“I know, I know. Where’s your Mom?” he was looking around.  
His daughter ran off, presumably to get Natalie. He decided to wait by the door and was glad when he’d thought right.  
“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately, “are you in some kind of trouble?”  
Taylor waited until she got closer so none of the kids could overhear accidentally.  
“I’m not, it got cleared up,” he promised, “but I kinda have a surprise.”  
She gave him a quizzical look.  
“…Outside,” he hinted.  
Natalie paused, before it clicked.  
“No,” she shook her head, “you did not bring him here.”  
“I did,” Taylor admitted.  
“What is he even doing in Tulsa?” her voice lowered, “are you covering for him?!”  
“He didn’t do this, I swear,” Taylor insisted, “I mean he has done a lot of things, but not this.”  
“Why is he here?” Natalie demanded.  
“He just needs to lay low for the night, somewhere the lab guys won’t come looking,” Taylor had regressed to begging her, “we’ve got Keandre in the city and Alex on his way to Texas tonight. We just need everything to calm down so we can focus from tomorrow.”  
Natalie checked over her shoulder to make sure no kids were in the room.  
“Ezra, Penny and River are still up,” she warned.  
“I was counting on it,” Taylor admitted, “I want them to meet him.”  
“Why?”  
“Because I don’t know what’s going to happen after this and I want them to have known him,” Taylor pleaded with her.  
Natalie appeared to consider it before eventually nodding slowly.  
“He has done a lot for us,” she reasoned.  
“He has, he has,” Taylor agreed.  
“Go ahead,” she sighed, folding her arms, “I’ll get them ready.”  
“Thank you,” Taylor grinned before going to fetch Jesse.

“Okay guys, this is going to be a little hard to take in so prepare yourselves,” Taylor announced, standing in front of the couch where the three of them sat, “but I want you to meet your Uncle Jesse. Jesse?”  
Taylor indicated for him to come into the room, and he gingerly stepped through the doorway.  
“No way!” Ezra jumped to his feet.  
“I thought you said his name was Damien?” River looked confused.  
“Guys,” Taylor frowned, “you weren’t supposed to tell anyone about Damien. We talked about this!”  
“But I thought Damien was our Uncle?” Penny asked as Ezra just shrugged and made his way to where Jesse had stopped.  
“Hey,” he was looking down at him warily.  
“Hey,” Ezra returned, “…are you really our Uncle?”  
“Your Dad wouldn’t lie, would he?” Jesse looked toward Taylor.  
“You look just like him.”  
“Where have you been?” Penny asked, getting up to come to his side as well.  
Jesse looked for a chair so that he wouldn’t be standing over them, but in the end opted to kneel.  
“I used to live down South. Louisiana,” he readily explained, “now I’m kinda just… on the road. Which is where I met your Dad.”  
“This is Penny,” Taylor introduced, putting a hand on her shoulder, “and Ezra, and this one over here is River.”  
“You guys are named after songs, right?” Jesse tried to get River involved in the conversation too.  
“Yeah we are,” Penny mused as River just nodded.  
“That’s pretty cool,” Jesse mused, “I was named after a song too.”  
“Really?” Taylor was surprised.  
“Yeah my Ma had a thing for Rick Springfield,” he looked up at Taylor.  
“ _Jesse’s Girl_ ,” he realised with a smirk.  
“And my middle name is Rick,” Jesse smiled back.  
“Uncle Jesse-Rick,” Penny tried the name out loud.  
“You can call me whatever you want to,” Jesse assured her.  
“What about ‘other Dad’?” Ezra chuckled to himself.  
“Maybe not that,” Jesse narrowed an eye.  
“Would you like something to drink, Jesse?” Natalie offered from behind the small group.  
“We got something on the way home,” Taylor assured.  
“I’m good,” Jesse insisted when she ignored her husband.  
He stood from his knee and offered her a hand.  
“Nice to meet you,” he smiled.  
“You too,” she took it, “and thank you.”  
“My pleasure.”  
“I like his accent,” River whispered to Ezra, still not having moved from the couch.  
“You guys should probably start getting ready for bed,” Taylor suggested, “he’ll still be here in the morning.”  
All three groaned.  
“Go ahead,” Jesse insisted, “I’m just gonna get some air.”  
Taylor watched as he gave the kids a smile before heading for the front door again.  
“Okay. Bathroom. Teeth. All of you,” Natalie ordered above the continuing noise, “Tay, do you want to check on him?”  
“I’d better give him a minute,” Taylor’s hands slid into his jean pockets, “he’s had a rough couple of days. It might have been too much too soon.”  
“Okay then you can help with this instead. Ezra don’t forget your pyjamas are still in the dryer!”

Alex startled awake. Unsure of what had woken him at first, he struggled to find where he’d dropped his glasses so he could quickly put them back on.  
“It’s just a road block,” his mother assured him.  
“Is it for us?!” Alex’s heart was racing already.  
“I doubt it,” Judy scoffed, “no one would know where we are. We’re not even out of Oklahoma yet.”  
Alex checked his watch. It was still well before midnight.  
The three cars ahead were slowly waved on.  
“It’s not the cops,” Alex frowned, “why else would there be a road block?"  
“Maybe there was an accident and they’re just making people go around,” Judy shrugged, “stop panicking. We’ll be fine.”  
They slowly approached the large men checking the cars. Alex couldn’t help but feel relieved when they didn’t look anything like the lab scouts. When one of them tapped on his window unexpectedly, he lowered it as fast as he could.  
“Can we help you gentlemen?” Judy demanded, noticing their focus was mostly on her son.  
Without a word, the man at Alex’s window looked up toward his comrade. Alex couldn’t see the other man’s face, but he heard the sudden loud gunshot that took out the back left tire.  
“What!” he exclaimed, jumping several inches in fright.  
“Get out of the car,” a heavy accent demanded, opening his door.  
“What’s going on?!” Judy demanded, “who are you people?!”  
Alex looked back across to her for help, just in time to see the gunman empty two bullets into her chest.  
“MOM?!” he screamed, struggling with his seatbelt in his effort to reach over to her.  
But the moment he had it free, the man at his door had grabbed him and dragged him from the car.  
“MOM! NO!” his voice cracked the second time as he fell onto the road, not wanting to lose sight of her.  
He scrambled back to his feet as he tried to lunge for the car again, but the much larger man easily took hold of him. He was too weak the fight all the muscle. He caught one last glimpse of his mother staring back at him as he was dragged back toward a waiting SUV. The last thing he made out was something black coming toward his head.


	10. Chapter 10

Jesse leant forward onto his lap and started picking at his nails as Taylor eventually emerged from the front door to find him sitting on the porch.  
“Sorry,” he apologised as soon as the door closed, “a bit too much for you all at once, huh?”  
Jesse slowly shook his head.  
“No… it’s not that,” he replied softly, looking over toward his truck.  
“If you really want to leave, I won’t stop you,” Taylor walked over to him, offering him the keys, “I mean I can’t stop you.”  
Jesse took the keys without looking up.  
“Thanks,” his voice stayed low, “but that’s not what I need the truck for either.”  
“What do you mean?” Taylor frowned, debating sitting with him.  
“There was a cell phone in the glove compartment,” Jesse revealed, “it had the number of an old army buddy of mine. I needed to call him. I left a message so we’ll probably talk tomorrow.”  
“Army,” Taylor nodded to himself, “so that’s your big secret?”  
Jesse smirked, fiddling with the keys now.  
“Not really a secret,” he shrugged, “but the division certainly was.”  
Taylor looked over to the truck before sighing and sitting down. There was a short moment of silence before Jesse raised his head again.  
“Sorry, this is all me,” he tried to reassure, “it’s just that… I’m never gonna have this.”  
He indicated the house, but Taylor knew that wasn’t what he was talking about.  
“And up until yesterday it was all we’d ever wanted.”  
“You might,” Taylor tried to stay optimistic, “eventually.”  
“No,” Jesse shook his head with a sigh, “no, she was the one. I’ll never find another her.”  
Taylor didn’t know what to say to that. He couldn’t begin to comprehend what he was going through. Instead he just sat in silence, simply hoping Jesse knew that he was there for him.  
“Are they in bed?” Jesse asked.  
“Yeah,” Taylor cleared his throat, “yeah, for a while now.”  
“Good. I don’t want them to hear any of this.”  
Taylor frowned at that before looking across at him.  
“I’m going to go after whoever killed her,” Jesse admitted straight out, “whether that’s Morris or someone else, I’m going to find them and I’m going to deal with them.”  
His hands clenched into fists as he struggled to control himself, and Taylor noticed.  
“Is revenge what she would want?” he asked warily.  
“Vengeance. Justice,” Jesse corrected, “she knew me better than anyone, and she knows that it’s coming. She was my rock and now I don’t have that anymore. It’s time to do something a little crazy.”  
“Not too crazy I hope,” Taylor’s brow furrowed.  
“What does it matter anymore?” Jesse shrugged dismally, looking out across the yard, “I got nothing left to live for. My whole future just went overnight. Poof. Gone.”  
Taylor paused, just staring at him.  
“Would you live for me?” he asked.  
“What?” Jesse looked up.  
“I’m serious,” Taylor’s eyes searched his, “out of this whole raging nightmare you’ve been the one good thing to come of it. I have you to thank for my kids even being here!”  
He paused again, trying to put the right words together.  
“Out of all of them you’re the only one that actually feels like family. Like some weird distant Southern cousin, but family nonetheless.”  
Jesse smirked at that and Taylor was glad that it broke the tension.  
“I don’t want to lose you when I just found you,” he went on, “and you can stay here as long as you want to, but I know that you gotta do what you gotta do.”  
Jesse nodded before looking back up at the truck.  
“It’s appreciated,” he assured.  
“I just kinda hoped you’d have some time with the kids first,” Taylor admitted.  
“There’s someone over at my truck.”  
Taylor froze, his eyes going right to it.  
“What?” he wasn’t sure he heard right.  
“There’s someone standing behind my truck,” Jesse elaborated a little, not even looking in the right direction, “I suggest you go back inside and let me handle it.”  
“What if it’s the cops?” Taylor’s brow furrowed as his voice lowered, “what if it’s Morris?”  
“I’ll handle it,” Jesse looked him in the eye, “don’t worry. I won’t wake the kids.”  
“Do you need help?”  
“No.”  
Taylor took a deep breath before slowly getting to his feet.  
“Come back in when you’re done,” he insisted before turning to head for the door.  
He froze on the spot when a man appeared from the shadows at the other end of the porch.  
“Hey!” his shout caught Jesse’s attention, “this is private property, you can’t be here!”  
The man continued walking toward him. Seeing that he wasn’t slowing down, Taylor backed off as Jesse got to his feet.  
“You heard him,” Jesse came to his side, “what do you want?”  
As if stepping into the light and revealing his tactical vest wasn’t enough to intimidate them, the man then pulled a gun from his belt and cocked it.  
“Jesus!” Taylor flinched back, Jesse grabbing his shoulder and stepping in front of him.  
“Get back in the house and lock the doors!” he ordered.  
Taylor darted for the door, only to stop short as a bullet hit the doorframe.  
“Taylor?!” he faintly heard a call from Natalie just inside.  
Jesse looked over his shoulder to see the other man approaching the house. He was wearing a similar tactical vest, and it made him wish he’d fetched at least one of his guns as soon as he’d gotten there.  
“Looks like this will be hand-to-hand,” he muttered, “and the odds are not in our favor.”

Carey took his time saying goodbye to Emma. He didn’t want to admit that he was worried about what might happen, but he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible before he left.  
“How long?” she asked him.  
“A few days, hopefully. A week tops,” he shrugged, “he’s scared. I just need to calm him down, and maybe bring him home.”  
“I get it,” she nodded, “you should bring him home for the birth.”  
“Maybe I will,” Carey considered, “but for now I’ll just make sure that I don’t miss it myself.”  
“You never know,” Emma was showing her doubt.  
“As if I’d miss that,” Carey smirked.  
“Care you can’t promise anything,” Emma was close to rolling her eyes, “between Mark and his problems and Morris…”  
“I swear,” Carey took her by the shoulders, “nothing will keep me away for the birth of this baby. I’ll crawl home on my hands and knees if I have to – I’ll be here.”  
He left her at home and took a cab to the airport on his own, only bothering to take hand luggage with him. He arrived mid-afternoon just in time for the crazy Chicago traffic to kick in, but made it to the apartment in surprisingly good time. He paused on the sidewalk as the cab drove away to look up at the building. He’d only ever seen the outside of it.  
Taking a deep breath and only imagining what he was in for, he made his way inside. He texted Mark on his way to the elevator knowing he had to let him up, only realising someone was standing near it when he looked up again.  
“Mr Reis,” the doorman’s brow rose, “another role?”  
“Excuse me?” Carey asked, watching as he pressed the button.  
“You have a wig,” the doorman indicated his hair.  
“Oh,” Carey realised, “yes. New role. Gotcha. Yes…”  
He breathed a sigh of relief when the doors opened before anything else could be said.  
“Good luck,” the doorman tipped his hat as they closed behind him.  
“What are you getting me into?” Carey muttered to himself as the elevator rose.  
When the doors opened again he immediately spotted Mark over to the left, sitting at the kitchen bench.  
“Hey loser,” was his greeting as he downed the shot that had been sitting in front of him.  
“Drinking again. Great,” Carey sighed, dropping his bag by the door and making his way over.  
“Took you long enough,” Mark used the decanter to pour another shot.  
Once he’d set it down again, Carey pointedly took the shot glass and downed it himself. Mark just watched him with a raised brow as he pulled a face and set it down empty.  
“Okay,” he huffed, “that’s it. I’m cutting you off.”  
“Come on,” Mark mused, “join me for one last drunken night of wild glory. We’ll focus on the bad stuff first thing in the morning. Promise.”  
“How about we don’t kill ourselves tonight,” Carey suggested in return, “and… we spend a quiet night in drinking a ton of water so we aren’t incredibly hungover first thing in the morning. Sound good?”  
“No,” Mark scoffed, standing from the bench seat and heading for the refrigerator.  
Carey rolled his eyes, taking the moment to look around.  
“When’s the last time they were here?” he asked.  
“When the guy in jail’s daughter did my makeup,” Mark emerged from the fridge with a canister of water.  
Carey smirked at that.  
“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up,” Mark took a swig of the water before setting the canister on the benchtop.  
Carey took it after him and had a drink as well.  
“So what do you want to do?” Mark stared him down.  
“What I _want_ to do is have a good talk,” Carey admitted, “but that’s not going to happen today, so… we could watch TV, eat junk food and commiserate about our lives?”  
“So girls’ night in?” Mark’s brow rose.  
“If you want to see it that way,” Carey smiled, “who has the best pizza around here?”  
Mark held up a finger and went back to the fridge, pulling a pamphlet from the front and handing it over.  
“I’ll order it for six,” Carey pulled out his cell phone to first Google the menu.  
He froze when he heard the elevator ding. Meeting Mark’s eye, he saw that his face had immediately paled.  
“Get out of sight,” he hissed, indicating behind him, “bedroom’s at the end on the right.”  
Carey didn’t bother looking over his shoulder before bolting through the apartment. Mark made his way around the bench toward the entryway as the doors opened, expecting to see either John or his shorter accomplice come through.  
It wasn’t either of them.  
One glance of what the two men were wearing and he followed Carey.  
“What is it?!” Carey frowned when Mark pushed him further into the room and slammed the door behind him.  
“Help me move the bed!” he ordered, rushing to grab the end of it.  
Carey didn’t question it, just helped him as fast as he could. They barely got it there in time before they heard pounding on the door.  
“Who is it?!” Carey demanded over the noise.  
“I don’t know,” Mark admitted, his face almost as white as the sheets.  
“You don’t know?”  
“I don’t know!”  
“Is there another way out of here?” Carey looked around.  
Mark just shook his head, watching as the bed struggled to hold the weight being pressed against the door. Then all of a sudden – it stopped.  
The twins froze, both staring toward the door.  
“What are they doing?” Carey whispered to himself.  
A moment later, the sound of gunshots. They could see part of the wooden doorframe splintering from their side.  
“Holy shit,” Carey cussed as Mark ran for the closet.  
He quickly aimed for a shoebox on the top shelf where he found Colin’s silver pistol. He made sure it was loaded and cocked before returning to the room.  
“Where did you get that?” Carey demanded as Mark made for the head of the bed.  
“Is now really the time for that?” Mark scorned, reaching under where his pillow usually sat.  
He pulled out a sheathed dagger and slid it into his belt.  
“Where’s mine?” Carey demanded.  
“Check the dresser. Bottom drawer,” Mark pointed.  
Carey darted over to it, falling to his knees. The doorway was crumbling and Mark could tell the door would soon come down. He stood on the other side of the bed with both hands on the gun, ready and waiting.  
Carey soon came to his side, a second dagger in his left hand.  
“Ready for this?” he asked.  
“No,” Mark took a deep breath, “but what choice do we have?”  
They watched as the door began to falter, and the top bolt came away. In seconds the door was down and Carey got his first glimpse of one of the intruders.  
“What the Hell…?”  
Mark fired his first shot. He couldn’t tell if he’d hit the man, but he’d ducked to the side nonetheless. Now they knew they were armed.  
“They’re either military or secret service,” Carey said in a low tone.  
“It doesn’t matter!” Mark insisted, “what they’re going to be is dead!”  
Hearing boot falls in the distance, he ventured closer to the bed. He’d only heard one set walking away.  
“Do you know what they want?” Carey asked, following him.  
“I didn’t stop to ask,” Mark grunted, eyes darting across the doorway for any sign of movement.  
“Wait,” Carey put a hand on his shoulder before he could climb onto the bed, “what’s your plan?!”  
“Get to the elevator,” Mark scorned as if it were obvious, “preferably in one piece!”  
“What’s the easiest way to do that?”  
“Where we came from, through the kitchen.”  
“Okay,” Carey agreed, “I got your back.”  
Mark paused, then smirked a little.  
“Can I say it?” he asked.  
Carey gave him an odd look before rolling his eyes.  
“We could be about to get shot and you-“  
“Don’t be a fucking downer!”  
“Fine! Say it.”  
“It’s _Miller time_ ,” Mark said under his breath before jumping onto the bed.  
Keeping an eye to the right as he stepped out through the door, he made sure to keep the gun at waist height. There was no sign of the intruders.  
“Clear,” he whispered to Carey who promptly followed.  
The two began to move through the apartment in silence, both keeping a lookout. Carey felt his skin crawling as though at least one of the intruders already had their eyes on them. This meant as soon as he saw a tiny flicker of a shadow moving he was on guard.  
“Behind us,” he quietly threw over his shoulder.  
“Nope,” Mark countered, “in front of us.”  
“Shit,” Carey’s eyes darted before landing on the man Mark had seen.  
He was about their height but looked like a bodybuilder. The moment he’d stepped out, the other had appeared from behind Carey. His left arm had a trail of blood running down it but he couldn’t see a visible wound.  
“What do you want?!” Carey demanded, knowing they were surrounded.  
There was a short pause where the twins were cornered in a part of the left hallway before the one with the bloodied arm pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. The confusion on his face was evident.  
“Оба из них?” the other asked.  
“Это тоже,” bloodied-arm replied.  
“What language is that?” Mark frowned, now even more on edge.  
“I’m not sure,” Carey admitted, locking eyes with the one who held the paper.  
He put it away without looking before pulling a gun from his belt.  
“This is going to suck,” Carey winced, hearing another gun arm from behind Mark.  
“Try me!” Mark dared him, his own gun still raised, “you think that vest will save you?!”  
“I don’t have a gun,” Carey reminded him from between his teeth.  
“Wing it!” Mark insisted before Carey made his decision.  
He threw the dagger, aiming for the man’s shoulder. He managed to duck out of the way and in the distraction Carey turned and pulled the other dagger from Mark’s belt. Mark hadn’t moved.  
“You like to play with knives?” the one at Carey’s end smirked, backing over to the wall to fetch the dagger from where it had embedded.  
He pointedly put his gun away and slid his fingertip down the blade’s edge instead.  
“What the fuck have you gotten me into?” Carey’s brow furrowed, question directed at Mark.  
“I’ve never seen these guys before,” Mark insisted.  
“We need to get past your guy,” Carey insisted.  
“I _know_.”  
“So fucking shoot him!”  
Mark grit his teeth, still in a stare down with the man. He was only looking more and more confident.  
“Fine,” Mark aimed for his leg and fired.  
The bullet must have grazed him, but he was quick to return fire. He tried to duck but it hit Mark in the shoulder.  
“Fucking come on!” Carey saw their escape and grabbed his other shoulder to pull him forward.  
A quick glance back saw the other one advancing. But they didn’t get far. Mark was tripped by the gunman and landed hard on his hands and knees – losing the pistol in the process. Carey bolted for where it had skid across the tiled floor but Mark saw the shadow of the one with the dagger practically on top of him.  
“CARE!” he tried to yell out in warning, unable to get up as quick as he wanted to.  
Carey made it to the gun only to be hit by a solid mass of muscle. It took the wind out of him and threw him into the wall face first.  
Well and truly feeling like he was fighting for his life, his adrenaline went into overdrive. Somehow he managed to throw the larger man off before his attention was diverted by the sound of breaking glass.  
His accomplice had broken a small bottle on the countertop and dropped a rag on top of it.  
“CAREY?!” he heard Mark calling from the floor on the other side of the bench.  
Weaponless, Carey sized up his opponent. It wasn’t a good match. But his thoughts turned to Emma and he suddenly received another adrenaline boost.  
He grabbed the nearby bar stool and aimed it for the man’s head as the other dove across the counter. Before Carey recovered from the throw the second man had grabbed him around the throat and held the rag over his nose and mouth.  
He couldn’t fight the man’s weight, especially once the other had recovered and come to help. The last thing he saw was the second man reaching out to grab his hair before he slowly passed out.  
Mark’s breathing heavied when he heard Carey drop. He’d managed to pull himself up into a sit back against the bench but he couldn’t see his brother from where he was. When he heard boot falls and looked up to see the one with the bloodied arm appear above him, he knew it was game over.  
The last thing he saw was one of those boots aimed for his face.


End file.
